Pedestrians walk past a newsstand in Harare on Monday. Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, ignored a midday deadline set by the ruling party to step down or face impeachment proceedings. Meanwhile, Zimbabweans stunned by his failure to resign during a national address vowed more protests to make him leave. Ben Curtis/AP hide caption
Zimbabwe's parliament has moved one crucial step closer toward removing the country's longtime president, Robert Mugabe. On Tuesday, one day after Mugabe ignored a deadline set by his party to resign, lawmakers made a motion to impeach the president.
The proceedings are set to begin Tuesday afternoon local time.
Mugabe, 93, has been under exceptional pressure to end his 37-year tenure in office. Now under house arrest by the military, which seized power last week in what it described as a "bloodless correction," Mugabe has also heard calls for his resignation from his own ruling ZANU-PF party and demonstrators in the streets. Just days after tens of thousands gathered to demand that he step down in the capital, Harare, Reuters reports another sizable protest collected outside the parliament building in the city Tuesday.
Mugabe must "accept the will of the people" and resign, said the recently ousted vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is viewed by many as Mugabe's likely successor.
"Parliament is the ultimate expression of the will of the people outside an election and in my view is expressing national sentiment by implementing the impeachment," Mnangagwa said in a statement from an undisclosed location Tuesday, according to The Guardian. Mnangagwa, who said he had heard there were plans to "eliminate" him after his ouster, added that he "would not return home now until I am satisfied of my personal security, because of the manner and treatment given to me upon being fired."
The tumult Tuesday follows days of uncertainty surrounding Mugabe, who was displaced from power by the military in an attempt to reclaim the country from the "criminals around [Mugabe] who are committing crimes" — though, as it soon became clear, the military intended Mugabe to step down, too.
That move has appeared to have the backing of many vocal protesters, who have been in a "jubilant" mood, journalist Jeffrey Barbee told Weekend Edition.
"People are really excited to see the end of Mugabe," he said.
Then, the capper: On Sunday, even Mugabe's own ZANU-PF party voted to remove him and his wife, Grace, and appoint Mnangagwa in his stead. That's when the party issued its ultimatum: Step down, or you will be impeached.
Mugabe's critics are "saying that Mugabe has brought economic despondency," NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton told Morning Edition, "and also that he has allowed his wife, the first lady Grace Mugabe — who has unbridled political ambition and wanted to become vice president, we are told, and that is why he sacked one of his vice presidents — that he has allowed his wife to usurp power."
But in a rambling televised speech later that day, Mugabe spoke of the economy, party rules — just about everything but the resignation many had expected. A party-set deadline to resign by midday Monday also came and went without definitive word from Mugabe.
And on Tuesday, Mugabe even called a cabinet meeting — which most ministers apparently chose not to attend.
Still, it's unclear how much of a change in policy Mnangagwa would promise, if indeed he is to replace the longtime strongman. Mnangagwa "is no street angel" himself, Ofeibea reported last week:
"He's no savior. He's cut from the same cloth, the cloth that has seen Zimbabwe's economy tumble. This was the breadbasket of southern Africa. He's also seen as having been absolutely brutal in the '80s in Matabeleland when there was a massacre. So people shouldn't think of Emmerson Mnangagwa, who may come back and head an interim government, as being a savior for Zimbabwe — certainly not."
"Zimbabweans I know — I'm Zimbabwean — we're ululating all around the world and we are celebrating," journalist Michelle Faul told Weekend All Things Considered, "but we need to be cautious. This is not a revolution to bring reform. This is about an internal ZANU-PF coup to ensure that ZANU continues its one-party rule of Zimbabwe."
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