Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, facing impeachment, resigns after 37 years in power

Celebrations erupted in the streets after Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, resigned Tuesday, a stunning end to nearly 40 years of leadership announced in parliament during impeachment proceedings against him.

Car horns were blasting across Harare, the capital, as Zimbabweans expressed their joy at Mugabe’s departure. People sang and danced in the streets.

The resignation came with Mugabe facing a possible swift removal by parliament through impeachment and after only a handful of Cabinet ministers appeared at a meeting he called Tuesday.

Parliament’s speaker stopped proceedings to say lawmakers had received a letter from the president indicating his resignation was effective immediately. Parliament erupted into cheers.

Minah Mandaba, a member of the ruling ZANU-PF party’s Central Committee, danced and cheered as she left the joint sitting of parliament, where the resignation was announced.

“I’m overjoyed. This is a wonderful day, not only in the history of Zimbabwe but for the world,” Mandaba said. “We did this with no bloodshed. We had peace and tranquility. This has been done with much love for each other. It’s a lesson to the rest of the world.”

Mugabe had been facing immense pressure to quit after 37 years in power, during which he evolved as a leader in the fight against white minority rule to a person considered most responsible for such problems as a collapsing economy and human rights violations.

He had led the country since independence from Britain in 1980, first as prime minister and then as president. But he presided over a country struggling with unemployment of around 90%, a dire currency crisis and impoverished health and education sectors.

He managed to hang on for a week after Zimbabwe’s military took control, stripped him of executive power, confined him to his house and arrested his political allies, including a group of senior government ministers. But as the pressure mounted, he resigned.

When he came to power in 1980, Mugabe was seen as one of Africa’s great liberation heroes, and he still sees himself, one of the continent’s elder statesmen, with no political peers.

But ruthless and oppressive, his popularity declined when he sent security forces to arrest and beat up opposition activists during several violent, flawed elections.

His move to strip white farmers of their land beginning in 2000 triggered deep economic difficulties in a country largely reliant on agriculture, as farms and the industries linked to them collapsed.

In 2007, Zimbabwe experienced galloping hyperinflation that saw the country forced to print $100-trillion notes that were virtually worthless, a crisis that wiped out savings and left many destitute, while political insiders speculated on the currency.

Mugabe was responsible for Operation Gukurahundi in southern Zimbabwe in the 1980s, a military operation designed to crush an opposition movement, leaving an estimated 20,000 people dead. In 2005, millions of homes and informal businesses were destroyed in opposition strongholds, in an operation called “Sweep Away the Filth,” which left up to a million people displaced.

Both former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the head of the armed services, Constantino Chiwenga, played roles in Gukurahundi and in other operations over the years designed to prevent the opposition from gaining power.

Mugabe’s departure paves the way for Mnangagwa — who was fired by Mugabe — to take power and lead the country, with elections due early next year. Mnangagwa was expected to take over within 48 hours, according to ZANU-PF officials.

Mugabe’s resignation illustrated the strength of Zimbabwe’s military security sector and its longtime role in the nation’s politics.

The ZANU-PF party was beginning impeachment proceedings against Mugabe after its Central Committee ousted the president as party leader Sunday and replaced him with Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa, a former state security minister nicknamed “the Crocodile,” served for decades as Mugabe’s enforcer, with a reputation for being astute and ruthless, more feared than popular.

Mugabe’s leaving comes amid concerns that Zimbabwe’s military does not intend to move the country toward an open democracy, as the opposition demands, but wants to see the ruling ZANU-PF party retain firm control.

Mnangagwa, who has been in hiding since Mugabe sacked him, earlier Tuesday had made his first public statement since the army took power, calling on Mugabe to resign.

Mnangagwa said Mugabe had called him and invited him to Zimbabwe for talks. Mnangagwa said he would not return to Zimbabwe until he could be sure of his safety, even though his allies in the military are in charge and his enemies in the ZANU-PF have been arrested and removed from power.

“Given the events that followed my dismissal, I cannot trust my life in President Mugabe’s hands,” he said.

Mnangagwa said after he was fired that he was warned by his security detail he was in danger and could be killed unless he fled the country.

Mnangagwa said the military action to take control of the country was code-named Operation Restore Legacy and was “aimed at preserving the ethos of our struggle against British colonialism.”

He and other senior figures in the government and military see the preservation of the gains of the liberation struggle against white minority rule as a ZANU-PF prerogative, and they have worked all their lives to prevent the opposition from taking power. They also see the opposition as disorganized and unlikely to win elections.

But they also want to attract foreign investors and development aid and may agree to a transitional government, retaining the real levers of power in the military and security services.

In a previous transitional government, ZANU-PF retained the key power ministries, controlling the military and security sectors and handed the opposition ministries like finance, health and education.

ZANU-PF insiders said the military and senior party figures had no intention of bringing in the kind of democratic reforms the opposition has been demanding.

After Mugabe’s resignation, a tweet was sent from the Twitter profile of higher education minister Jonathan Moyo, who was arrested last week.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to have served my country under & with him. I’m proud that I stood with & by this iconic leader during the trying moments of the last days of his Presidency,” the tweet said. “Democracy requires politics to lead the gun!”

Another close Mugabe ally, ZANU-PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, who also was arrested, tweeted a farewell to the president in his first comment since the military took over.

“Let’s embrace the new dispensation and build our nation. Unity is strength and peace are prerequisites for progress,” he tweeted.

The motive for the military takeover was the removal of a ZANU-PF faction called G40, which included Moyo and Kasukuwere.

ZANU-PF spokesman Simon Khaya-Moyo said Mugabe’s departure was welcome and the party wished him a restful future.

“He deserves a good rest. He’s done so much for all of us,” Khaya-Moyo said.

Special correspondent Tawanda Karombo in Harare, Zimbabwe, contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

12:25 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reaction and details.

8:40 a.m.: This article was updated with Times staff reporting.

8 a.m.: This article was updated with Mugabe’s resignation

This article was originally published at 6 a.m.

Let's block ads! (Why?)