Zimbabwe’s ruling party has voted to oust Robert Mugabe as its leader, giving him a deadline of noon on Monday to resign as president or face impeachment.
In an extraordinary meeting of the Zanu-PF party’s central committee Sunday, it replaced Mugabe with the deputy he fired earlier this month and dismissed first lady Grace Mugabe as head of its women’s league.
Clinging to his virtually powerless post, the 93-year-old Mugabe was also due to meet with the army commander who put him under house arrest for a second round of exit negotiations Sunday, as the pressure for him to step down as president reached fever pitch.
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If Mugabe does not resign, impeachment proceedings will begin when parliament resumes on Tuesday, Cyber Security Minister Patrick Chinamasa said.
Members of the ruling party’s Central Committee stood, cheered and began to sing as the process of recalling Mugabe as leader began. Meeting chair Obert Mpofu referred to him as the “outgoing president.”
Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose ousting nearly two weeks ago led to the military seizure of power, was chosen as the party’s new leader.
The former state security chief — known as “The Crocodile” — is expected to head a new government after his formal election as ruling party chief next month.
Mnangagwa, 75, is a former Mugabe ally who earned his nickname after leading a group of fighters called the Crocodile Gang during the country’s war of independence in the 1960s and 70s, Voice of America reported. He was sentenced to death for blowing up trains in the 1960s but was never executed because of his young age.
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The ruling party said he should be its nominee to stand for presidential elections next year.
Without the military’s intervention, Mrs. Mugabe would have likely replaced Mnangagwa as vice president and been in a position to succeed her husband.
The party accused her Sunday of “preaching hate, divisiveness and assuming roles and powers not delegated to the office.”
Zimbabwean officials have not revealed details of Mugabe’s talks with army commander Constantino Chiwenga, but the military appears to favor a voluntary resignation by Mugabe to maintain a veneer of legality in the political transition.
Mugabe, in turn, could be using whatever leverage he has left to try to preserve his legacy as one of Africa’s liberation leaders or even protect himself and his family from possible prosecution.
South African leaders said they would hold a regional crisis summit on the situation in Zimbabwe, in Angola on Tuesday.
The developments came a day after euphoric crowds rallied peacefully in the capital, Harare, for the long-time president’s resignation.
Many people on the streets heralded the developments as a “second liberation” for the former British colony and spoke of their dreams for political and economic change after over 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.”
