Zimbabwean President has been given a choice to voluntarily step down or be ready for impeachment
President Robert Mugabe was dismissed as leader of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party on Sunday in a move to force a peaceful end to his 37 years in power following a de facto military coup. He was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy he sacked this month, sources at a special Zanu-PF meeting to decide Mugabe's fate said. "He has been expelled," one of the delegates said. "Mnangagwa is our new leader." Mugabe's wife Grace, who had harboured ambitions of succeeding Mugabe, was also expelled from the party. Speaking before the meeting, war veterans' leader Chris Mutsvangwa said the 93-year-old Mugabe was running out of time to negotiate his departure and should leave the country while he could.
Members of the International Apostolic Ejuwel Jekenisheni Church dance, sing, pray, and play drums during a morning service at the open-air church on the outskirts of Harare on Sunday. Pic/AFP
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"He's trying to bargain for a dignified exit," he said. Mutsvangwa followed up with threat to call for street protests if Mugabe refused to go, telling reporters, "We will bring back the crowds and they will do their business." Mnangagwa, a former state security chief, is now in line to head an interim post-Mugabe unity government that will focus on rebuilding ties with the outside world and stabilising an economy in freefall.
Robert Mugabe
On Saturday, thousands of people flooded the streets of Harare, singing, dancing and hugging soldiers in an outpouring of elation at Mugabe's expected overthrow. His stunning downfall in just four days is likely to send shockwaves across Africa, where a number of entrenched strongmen, from Uganda's Yoweri Museveni to Democratic Republic of Congo's Joseph Kabila, are facing mounting pressure to quit.
Emmerson Mnangagwa
Men, women and children ran alongside the armoured cars and troops who stepped in this week to oust the man who has ruled since independence from Britain in 1980. Under house arrest in his lavish 'Blue Roof' compound, Mugabe has refused to stand down even as he has watched his support from party, security services and people evaporate in less than three days.
His nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, told reporters that Mugabe and his wife were "ready to die for what is correct" rather than step down in order to legitimise what he described as a coup. But on Harare's streets, few seemed to care about the legal niceties as they heralded a "second liberation" for the former British colony.
1980 The year Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe
37 Total number of years he has been in power
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