A nephew of President Robert Mugabe has disclosed from a secret
location in South Africa that the ousted Zimbabwean leader and his wife,
Grace, are ready to die rather than step down.
Patrick Zhuwao told Reuters the elderly leader and his wife were
“ready to die for what is correct” rather than step down in order to
legitimize what he described as a coup.
Speaking from a secret location in South Africa, Zhuwao said Mugabe
had hardly slept since the military took over but his health was
otherwise “good”.
Sources in Zimbabwe however said a party central committee meeting
scheduled for 10:30 a.m. (3.30 a.m. ET) would dismiss 93-year-old
Mugabe’s preferred successor, his wife, Grace, from her role as head of
the ZANU-PF Women’s League.
Mugabe’s 37-year rule has been effectively at an end since the army
seized control on Wednesday, confining him to his residence, saying it
wanted to target the “criminals” around him.
Shortly after the sources revealed the meeting, a motorcade left
Mugabe’s official residence in the capital Harare to boos and jeers from
onlookers, although a security said Mugabe was not inside.
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Hundreds of thousands of people had flooded the streets of Harare
singing, dancing and hugging soldiers in an outpouring of elation at
Mugabe’s demise, while others marched towards his residence.
In scenes reminiscent of the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu in 1989, men, women and children ran alongside the armored
cars and the troops who stepped in this week to oust the only ruler
Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980.
Under house arrest in his lavish ‘Blue Roof’ compound, he has watched
support from his ZANU-PF party, security services and people evaporate
in less than three days.
On Harare’s streets, Zimbabweans spoke of a second liberation for the
former British colony, alongside their dreams of political and economic
change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship.
“These are tears of joy,” said Frank Mutsindikwa, 34, holding aloft
the Zimbabwean flag. “I’ve been waiting all my life for this day. Free
at last. We are free at last.”
Mugabe’s downfall 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 step aside.
The secretary-general of Zimbabwe’s War Veterans Association, Victor
Matemadanda, called on those at an anti-Mugabe rally to march on
Mugabe’s residence, and live television footage showed hundreds of
protesters marching in that direction.
“Let us now go and deliver the message that grandfather Mugabe and
his typist-cum-wife should go home,” Matemadanda told the crowd in the
Harare township of Highfield.
The crowds in Harare have so far given a quasi-democratic veneer to
the army’s intervention, backing its claims that it is merely effecting a
constitutional transfer of power, which would help it avoid the
diplomatic backlash and opprobrium that normally follows coups.
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The military had been prompted to act by Mugabe’s decision to sack
Mnangagwa, Grace Mugabe’s main rival to succeed her husband. The next
presidential election is due next year.
Zimbabweans abroad were also awaiting the end of Mugabe’s rule.
Hundreds living in Britain gathered outside the country’s embassy in
central London calling on the leader to step aside.
“I am happy today because Bob Mugabe is about to go. He must go. At
least if he goes, we’ll have a change of president after so many years
of injustice,” said Florence, a 34-year-old who declined to give her
last name.
For some Africans, Mugabe remains a nationalist hero, the continent’s
last independence leader and a symbol of its struggle to throw off the
legacy of decades of colonial subjugation.
But to many more at home and abroad, he was reviled as a dictator
happy to resort to violence to retain power and to run a once-promising
economy into the ground.
Although Mugabe had been digging in his heels in the face of army
pressure to quit, he appeared to have run out of road, devoid of
domestic or international support.
Political sources and intelligence documents seen by Reuters said
Mugabe’s exit was likely to pave the way for an interim unity government
led by Mnangagwa, a life-long Mugabe aide and former security chief
known as “The Crocodile”.
Stabilizing the free-falling economy will be the number one priority, the documents said.
The United States, a long-time Mugabe critic, said it was looking
forward to a “new era” in Zimbabwe, while President Ian Khama of
neighboring Botswana said Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region
and should resign at once.
In a sign of the depth of his demise, Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF called
on Friday for him to go, according to The Herald, the state newspaper
that has served as a loyal mouthpiece for nearly four decades.
ZANU-PF branches in all 10 provinces had also called for the
resignation of Mugabe’s wife Grace, the first lady whose ambitions to
succeed her husband outraged the military and much of the country.
To many Zimbabweans, Grace is more familiar as “Gucci Grace” on
account of her reported dedication to shopping, or – in the wake of the
alleged assault in September on a South African model – “Dis-Grace”.
The scenes in Harare reflect the anger and frustration that has built
up in nearly two decades of economic mismanagement that started with
the seizure of white-owned farms in 2000, the catalyst of a wider
collapse.
The central bank tried to print its way out of trouble by unleashing a
flood of cash but that only made matters worse, leading to
hyperinflation that topped out at 500 billion percent in 2008.
At least 3 million Zimbabweans emigrated in search of a better life, most of them to neighboring South Africa.
After stabilizing briefly when Mugabe was forced to work with the
opposition in a 2009-2013 unity government, the economy has collapsed
again, this time due to a chronic shortage of dollars in the country of
16 million people.
In October, monthly inflation leapt to more than 50 percent, putting
basic goods beyond the means of many in a country with 90 percent
unemployment.
Mugabe’s only public appearance since the military took over on
Wednesday was at a university graduation ceremony on Friday morning.
Decked out in blue and yellow academic gowns, he appeared tired, at one
point falling asleep in his chair.
A senior member of the ZANU-PF ruling party said it was only a matter of time before he agreed to his own departure.
“If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on
Sunday,” the source said. “When that is done, it’s impeachment on
Tuesday.”