Africa
6 years ago

Mugabe gets 24 hours to quit presidency

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Zimbabwe’s ruling party gave Robert Mugabe less than 24 hours to quit as the head of state, otherwise the 93-year-old will face impeachment.

The ZANU-PF party made the decision as an attempt to force a peaceful end to Mugabe's 37 years in power after a de facto coup.

The announcement was met by cheers from the 200 delegates packed into ZANU-PF’s Harare headquarters to seal the fate of Mugabe.

Mugabe was given until noon (1000 GMT) on Monday to resign or face impeachment, an ignominious end to the career of the “Grand Old Man” of African politics who was once feted across the continent as an anti-colonial liberation hero.

The ZANU-PF party has also expelled Mugabe as the leader of the party on Sunday.

The party replaced Mugabe by his former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.

His wife Grace Mugabe was also expelled from the party and banned for life.

Such scene was unthinkable just a week ago, before army seized the power.

Even in the West, he was renowned in his early years as the “Thinking Man’s Guerrilla”, an ironic nickname for a man who would later proudly declare he held a “degree in violence”.

As the economy crumbled and political opposition to his rule grew in the late 1990s, Mugabe showed his true colours, seizing thousands of white-owned farms, detaining opponents and unleashing security forces to crush dissent.

As the vote was announced, war veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa, who has spearheaded an 18-month campaign to remove a man he openly described as a “dictator”, embraced colleagues and shouted: “The President is gone. Long live the new President.”

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