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Zimbabwe's Mugabe has until noon to stand down or face impeachment

 

FILE PHOTO - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe watches a video presentation during the summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Johannesburg, South Africa August 17, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo

 

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has until noon (1000 GMT) on Monday to stand down or the ruling ZANU-PF will begin impeachment proceedings after the 93-year-old leader defied expectations he would resign.

 

Mugabe stunned Zimbabweans in a rambling late night Sunday television address by avoiding any mention of resignation, pledging instead to preside over a congress next month of ZANU-PF, which had sacked him as its leader only hours earlier.

 

Parliament does not sit on Mondays so any impeachment would have to wait until Tuesday, although a vote may not necessarily take place the same day.

 

Zimbabwe's liberation war veterans, who have been among the most vocal in calling for Mugabe's resignation, will hold a media briefing at 9.30 a.m.

 

Moments after Mugabe's address, war veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa told Reuters they would lead public protests in the streets of Harare, cranking up the pressure on Zimbabwe's ruler of the last 37 years.

 

Having been sacked by his party, Mugabe has run out of options but appears to be steadfastly clinging to the very last vestiges of power.

 

There was even speculation that he read the wrong speech in his live television address, or skipped over passages about standing down.

 

Anxious Zimbabweans have been trying to decipher a barely audible aside comment he made to military chief Constantino Chiwenga at the end of the address. In the audio, which is not clear, Mugabe refers to a "long speech" or a "wrong speech".

 

ZANU-PF's central committee had earlier named Emmerson Mnangagwa as its new leader. It was Mugabe’s sacking of Mnangagwa as his vice-president - paving the way for his wife Grace to succeed him - that triggered the army to seize control on Wednesday.

 

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands took to the streets of the capital Harare to celebrate Mugabe's expected downfall and hail a new era for their country.

 

The huge crowds in Harare have given a quasi-democratic veneer to the army’s intervention, backing its assertion that it was merely effecting a constitutional transfer of power, rather than a plain coup, which would risk a diplomatic backlash.

 

But some of Mugabe’s opponents are uneasy about the prominent role played by the military, and fear Zimbabwe might be swapping one army-backed autocrat for another, rather than allowing the people to choose their next leader.

 

Armoured vehicles manned by soldiers were still stationed on some street corners in the capital on Monday.

 

(Reporting by Joe Brock; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-20

[observer90210]

He is being offered the chance to leave without facing jail, trial or violent public uproar.

 

If he is smart, the despot should quietly leave with his family, negotiate a safe haven someplace and spend the last bit of his life in spending the millions he has squadered from his country and obviously hidden away in some offshore tax haven.

 

Amazing how some dictators just need to cling on to their power, even when the game is up....ultimately it's just all about power....not even for the money !!

Edited November 20, 2017 by observer90210

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, observer90210 said:

He is being offered the chance to leave without facing jail, trial or violent public uproar.

 

If he is smart, the despot should quietly leave with his family, negotiate a safe haven someplace and spend the last bit of his life in spending the millions he has squadered from his country and obviously hidden away in some offshore tax haven.

 

Amazing how some dictators just need to cling on to their power, even when the game is up....ultimately it's just all about power....not even for the money !!

 

He's stubborn, arrogant and feels entitled to be president for life. And nothing will persuade him otherwise after so long as the dictator.

 

Add to that the lovely Grace who is no doubt pressuring him like crazy as she seems to also think she has the right to simply take over the country herself.

 

Not even got the sense of Idi Amin who knew when the game was up. Mugabe won't go voluntarily and would sooner plunge the country into violent mayhem.

[observer90210]

Very true !!....Freud or Kant could have written an entire encyclopedia on the despot and his arrogant sweetie !

[baboon]

8 hours ago, observer90210 said:

He is being offered the chance to leave without facing jail, trial or violent public uproar.

 

If he is smart, the despot should quietly leave with his family, negotiate a safe haven someplace and spend the last bit of his life in spending the millions he has squadered from his country and obviously hidden away in some offshore tax haven.

 

Amazing how some dictators just need to cling on to their power, even when the game is up....ultimately it's just all about power....not even for the money !!

Well he is 93. 93 and rather set in his ways. I wonder if he even realises exactly what is unfolding and why?

[Stargeezr]

Noon in Western movies is when some of the great gunfights happened.  Maybe Bob wants to go out in a gunfight..

  Dreaming I am.

Geezer