The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party said on Sunday that former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking sparked a military takeover earlier this week, would be its candidate for president in elections scheduled for 2018.
“Mnangagwa was elected as president and first secretary of ZANU-PF… and was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2018 general elections,” said a party official at a meeting in Harare.
A party official announced at a meeting in Harare that Robert Mugabe had been ousted as party chief as ZANU-PF delegates cheered wildly.
In a stunning reversal of allegiances, the party added that it would impeach President Mugabe if he did not resign by Monday, Mnangagwa would be its candidate in 2018 elections, and that Grace was expelled from the ZANU-PF ranks.
Robert Mugabe — the world’s oldest head of state — remains national president but now faces overwhelming opposition from the generals, much of the Zimbabwean public and from his own party.
“(Mugabe’s) wife and close associates have taken advantage of his frail condition to usurp power and loot state resources,” party official Obert Mpofu told the ZANU-PF meeting.
Army chiefs who led the takeover were due to hold further talks with the president later Sunday.
– Historic week –
The two sides first met on Thursday, smiling in photographs that attempted to present a dignified image of the tense process of negotiating Mugabe’s departure.
Veterans of the independence war — who were also formerly key Mugabe allies — added their voice in support of him resigning, demanding that he leave office immediately.
Zimbabweans have experienced a historic week in which the military seized power and put Mugabe under house arrest in response to his sacking of vice president Mnangagwa, who has close military ties.
On Saturday, in scenes of public euphoria not seen since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, huge crowds marched and sang their way through Harare and other cities in peaceful celebrations marking the apparent end of his long, authoritarian rule.
Zimbabwe is now stable, please retweet to welcome our new leader comrade Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa! pic.twitter.com/PVbeEAv7eB
— ZANU PF (@zanu_pf) November 19, 2017
The demonstrations drew citizens of all ages, jubilant that Mugabe appeared to be on his way out.
In central Harare, a group of young men tore down a green metal street sign bearing Robert Mugabe’s name and smashed it repeatedly on the road.
Such open dissent would have would have been routinely crushed by security forces before this week’s shock events.
