Robert Mugabe, in Speech to Zimbabwe, Refuses to Say if He Will Resign

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Robert Mugabe, 93, who ruled Zimbabwe with an iron grip until the military placed him under house arrest last week, stunned the nation on Sunday night with a speech in which he refused to say whether he would resign.

Many political observers and fellow Zimbabweans had been expecting Mr. Mugabe to step down as president after nearly 40 years in power. But sitting at a table while flanked by members of the military and other officials — including a priest — the embattled president spoke for 20 minutes and acknowledged problems in the nation.

He also referred to himself as president and “commander in chief” — and declared that he would preside over his party’s congress, scheduled to take place in a few weeks.

“I will preside over its processes, which must not be prepossessed by any acts calculated to undermine it or to compromise the outcomes in the eyes of the public,” he said.

But observers questioned how he could oversee the conference if he was no longer leader of the party. The address came hours after he was expelled as leader of his governing party, ZANU-PF, which gave him until noon on Monday to resign or face impeachment by Parliament.

Party officials earlier on Sunday removed his wife, Grace Mugabe — who was widely viewed as his likely successor — as head of the ZANU-PF Women’s League and barred her from the party for life.

ZANU-PF also appointed Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice president previously fired by the president, as Mr. Mugabe’s successor to lead the party.

The harsh rebuke by the party’s central committee came after emergency talks to address the political crisis. Under the Constitution, Mr. Mugabe remains president despite the party’s expulsion.

The military takeover in Zimbabwe is just the latest in a long history of government overthrows. Here are several types of coups perpetrated by rogue operators.Published OnNov. 17, 2017CreditImage by Malin Palm/Reuters

Announcing the decision on Sunday, Patrick Chinamasa, the party’s secretary for legal affairs, said that Mr. Mugabe “hereby is recalled as first secretary and president of the ZANU-PF party.”

“He is therefore asked to resign forthwith,” Mr. Chinamasa said.

Cheers and dancing broke out in the building after the decision to expel Mr. Mugabe as party leader.

“There is a case at the end!” a group of youths chanted after storming an open space outside the ZANU-PF headquarters.

Many Western news outlets had alerted the world to a pending resignation, citing confidential sources. But it was not to be — at least in the speech on Sunday night.

Mr. Mugabe made the rambling, halting televised address to the southern African nation about 9 p.m. local time after intense negotiations at the State House with the country’s Army generals about the conditions of what was expected to be his departure.

Among the men sitting off to the side was Constantino Chiwenga, the very Army commander who had placed him under house arrest. Mr. Mugabe spoke for a little more than 18 minutes, sometimes repeating phrases and appearing to lose his place among the pages before him.

On Saturday, thousands of Zimbabweans had taken to the streets to celebrate Mr. Mugabe’s seeming fall from power after the military seized control but was careful not to call it a coup.

The autocratic ruler’s apparent downfall began with the military takeover on Wednesday. Once respected as a liberation icon who went into exile after fighting colonial rule, Mr. Mugabe became isolated from fellow party officials. Zimbabwe’s only leader since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980, he previously had faced little opposition from the party rank and file.

But the military placed him under house arrest, saying it wanted to target the criminals around Mr. Mugabe who had pillaged the country’s economy. And veterans of the fight for independence from white-minority rule joined the march on Saturday as Zimbabweans poured into the streets and danced, sang and shouted with joy at the prospect of Mr. Mugabe’s rule ending.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe met with military leaders in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Sunday.CreditAssociated Press

Mr. Mugabe met on Sunday for a second round of talks with the military. The president sought to negotiate a dignified departure, the Zimbabwe state-run broadcaster said.

A Catholic priest, Fidelis Mukonori, mediated. Others on the negotiating team included the deputy director-general for the Central Intelligence Organization, Aaron Nhepera, and the Mugabe spokesman George Charamba.

A majority of the party’s leaders had recommended expelling Mr. Mugabe. In a resolution, party leaders said Mr. Mugabe should be removed for taking the advice of “counterrevolutionaries and agents of neo-imperialism”; for mistreating his vice president, Mr. Mnangagwa; and for encouraging “factionalism.”

It urged the “immediate and unconditional reinstatement” of Mr. Mnangagwa, at least until the national elections scheduled for next year.

On Sunday, the leaders put force behind their recommendations. ZANU-PF’s central committee did not spare Mr. Mugabe’s second deputy president, Phelekezela Mphoko, who was also fired after serving as a vice president for three years.

Mr. Mnangagwa was elevated to the role of party leader and nominated as the party’s sole presidential candidate for the 2018 elections, a position that the committee said would be confirmed by the party’s congress in December.

Mr. Mnangagwa’s firing had positioned Mr. Mugabe’s wife to succeed him as president, but it appears to have been an overreach that singled out an erstwhile ally with liberation-war credentials and strong support from the military.

The vice president, however, has critics, who accuse him of being politically ruthless. He is also unpopular in parts of the country: He lost his parliamentary seat at least twice, once after being accused of firebombing his opponent’s house, according to an editor of The Zimbabwean newspaper.

In its marathon meeting, the central committee sought to undo recent moves by Mr. Mugabe, reversing the firing of several other officials and agreeing that the country’s war veterans should be “placed in strategic positions in the party and government as long as they have the right qualifications.”

The political crisis in Zimbabwe, which is spreading unease in the continent, will be on the agenda for a summit meeting in Angola on Tuesday of four countries in the southern African regional bloc: South Africa, which sent envoys to negotiate with Mr. Mugabe on a departure; Angola; Tanzania; and Zambia.

Norimitsu Onishi contributed reporting.