Reuters

By Emelia Sithole-Matarise

24th November 2017

HARARE (Reuters) – New President Emmerson Mnangagwa laid out a grand vision on Friday to revitalise Zimbabwe’s ravaged economy and vowed to rule on behalf of all the country’s citizens.

Sworn in days after the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, the 75-year-old former security chief promised to guarantee the rights of foreign investors and to re-engage with the West, and said elections would go ahead next year as scheduled.

In a 30-minute speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Harare’s national stadium, Mnangagwa extended an olive branch to opponents, apparently aiming to bridge the ethnic and political divides exploited by his predecessor during his 37 years in charge.

“I intend, nay, am required, to serve our country as the president of all citizens, regardless of colour, creed, religion, tribe or political affiliation,” he said, in a speech that also hailed the voice of the people as the “voice of god”.

Behind the rhetoric, some Zimbabweans wonder whether a man who loyally served Mugabe for decades can bring change to a ruling establishment accused of systematic human rights abuses and disastrous economic policies.

He made clear that the land reforms that sparked the violent seizure of thousands of white-owned farms from 2000 would not be reversed, but promised that those who lost property would receive compensation.

To some political opponents, the speech was a welcome contrast with the habitual belligerence of Mugabe and appeared to be drawing on Mnangagwa’s knowledge and understanding of China as a model for running an economy.

CHINA MODEL?

“His model has been the Chinese,” said David Coltart, a former education minister and MP from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. “He will drive to make Zimbabwe a more attractive investment location, and more efficient, but like China will not tolerate dissent. If you ‘behave’, you will be secure.”
Those sceptical about the new president’s commitment to change question his role in the so-called Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland in 1983, when an estimated 20,000 people were killed in a crackdown on Mugabe’s opponents by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade.

Mnangagwa was in charge of internal security at the time, but has denied any part in the atrocities.

Many Zimbabweans, especially the ethnic Ndebele who bore the brunt of the Gukurahundi slaughter, will see his appeal on Friday to “let bygones be bygones” as an attempt to gloss over his nation’s darkest chapter.

Some critics have alleged harsh treatment by soldiers of opponents of the military intervention last week – a de facto coup against Mugabe, 93, and his 52-year-old wife Grace.

Axed finance minister Ignatius Chombo was in hospital with injuries sustained from beatings during a week in military custody, his lawyer told Reuters. He was blindfolded throughout his time in detention, Lovemore Madhuku said. “It was a very brutal and draconian way of dealing with opponents,” he added.
Asked to comment, police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said she had no information about Chombo.

Separately, High Court Judge President George Chiweshe ruled that the military intervention last week was legal, following an application brought by two citizens who petitioned the court to confirm the military had been right to do what they did.

THE “CROCODILE”

Since his return to Zimbabwe this month after fleeing a Mugabe-led purge, Mnangagwa has been preaching democracy, tolerance and respect for the rule of law.
Along with Mugabe, Grace – Mnangagwa’s sworn enemy – has been granted immunity from prosecution and had her safety guaranteed, part of a deal that led to Mugabe’s resignation on Tuesday, sources close to the negotiations said.

For decades Mnangagwa was a faithful aide to Mugabe, who was widely accused of repression of dissent and election-rigging and under whose rule one of Africa’s once most prosperous economies was wrecked by hyperinflation and mass emigration.

Mnangagwa earned the nickname “Ngwena”, Shona for crocodile, an animal famed and feared in Zimbabwean lore for stealth and ruthlessness.

In his speech, Mnangagwa called for the removal of Western sanctions and said he wanted to “hit the ground running”. He appeared to have initial support from neighbouring states. South African President Jacob Zuma said he hoped he would steer Zimbabwe successfully through the transition from Mugabe’s rule.

The Southern African Development Community, an intergovernmental organisation, said it was ready to work closely with Mnangagwa’s government.

Zimbabweans listening to his speech said they were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but were also realistic about the chances of injecting life into an economy with 90 percent unemployment and banks devoid of cash.

In the last 15 years, an estimated 3 million have emigrated to neighbouring South Africa in search of a better life.

“I wanted to see for myself that Mugabe has really gone. He is the only president I’ve known,” said 33-year-old Lenin Tongoona. “We have a new president who may try something a little different to improve the economy. I’m excited today but tomorrow is uncertain because we don’t know how he will turn out. He talks about creating jobs. How does he plan to do that?”

(Additional reporting by Ed Cropley in Johannesburg; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Andrew Roche)

BBC

By Farouk Chothia

23rd November 2017

The silence of South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC), especially in the hours immediately after the fall of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, was deafening.

It showed the enormous psychological influence the one-time revolutionary wielded over the party – and it was so stunned by his humiliating exit that it was unable to respond to the momentous developments in the neighbouring state.

When the ANC finally commented almost 24 hours later, it applauded the military for ensuring a “smooth transition” and said it continued to respect Mr Mugabe’s role as a “freedom fighter”.

In contrast, the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) reacted swiftly, capturing the mood of many black and white South Africans when it said: “This is a victory for the people of Zimbabwe who have suffered greatly under the latter years of Mugabe’s reign. The story of Robert Mugabe is not a unique one, and is all too familiar on our continent.

“A once liberator of his people, Mugabe brought division, instability, and economic ruin to Zimbabwe as he made the unfortunate transition from liberator to dictator.”

But this applies not only to Mr Mugabe, but to also to the party he led Zanu-PF, which has dominated Zimbabwe since sweeping to power at independence in 1980.

As Zimbabwean opposition politician David Coltart poignantly remarked: “We have removed a tyrant but not yet a tyranny”.

He was referring to the fact that one faction of Zanu-PF, led by sacked Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has ousted another, which had coalesced around Mr Mugabe’s and his wife Grace.

Like Zanu-PF, the ANC, which also took power at the end of minority rule, is wracked by corruption and violence, as rival factions fight to gain positions in government, primarily to enrich themselves rather than serve the nation.

‘Western plots’

A former intelligence chief who has used the state apparatus to tighten his grip on power, South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma is a central figure in a faction campaigning to install his ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as the next president, leading South Africans to draw parallels with Zimbabwe.

As South Africa’s respected newspaper columnist Max Du Preez wrote: “Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is no Grace Mugabe and isn’t married to Zuma any longer, even if she still [or again?] wears his wedding ring.

“But unfair or not, many South Africans draw parallels between Mugabe wanting his wife to become his successor and Zuma trying to do the same with his ex-wife.”
A delegate of the African National Womens League (ANCWL) chants in support former African Union Chair and current African National Congress (ANC) front runners for ANC President, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma during the Kwazulu-Natal ANC Womens League (ANCWL) Provincial Conference at the Playhouse theatre of Durban on September 3, 2017.

In racially charged rhetoric similar to that of Mr Mugabe, the Zuma-led ANC faction has condemned “white monopoly capital”, has demanded land expropriation from whites without compensation and has warned of Western plots to oust the party.

For the Zuma-led faction, the ANC, under the late Nelson Mandela, made too many concessions to white South Africans to end minority rule, and these have to be reversed.
As Mr Mugabe said in August 2017: “I asked one of the ANC ministers, how come whites have been left with so much power and he said: ‘It was because of your friend Mandela, he is the one who made mistakes.'”

It matters little to them that South Africa’s economy could collapse, like Zimbabwe’s did after Mr Mugabe adopted policies that struck fear in the hearts of white Zimbabweans and Western investors.

This is why ANC youth leader Collen Maine said in December 2016: “We want the rand [South Africa’s currency] to fall, we need those economic turntables. The rand will fall but when it rises, we will be in charge of the economy of South Africa.”

‘Look East policy’

When ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded South Africa’s economic rating some four months later, sending the currency into a tailspin, Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane defiantly responded that “the West can’t dictate to us”.

“These junk ratings have nothing to do with financial ratings. It’s political ratings,” she said, adding: “The rand falls. It fell in apartheid and we will pick it up again now.”

Her comments and those of Mr Maine show that the Zuma-led ANC faction is still steeped in the liberation-era mentality, when the Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the US shaped the party’s thinking.

Like Mr Mugabe, it wants South Africa to pursue a “Look East” policy – a point Mr Maine made when he called on the Youth League to compose a song entitled “Jacob Zuma, Economic Freedom Is In Your Hands”.

“As we compose the song, can you [Mr Zuma] please be the Putin of South Africa?” Mr Maine said, referring to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Mr Zuma himself has gone as far as to suggest that Western powers have tried to kill him, as he forges closer ties with Russia and China.

“I was poisoned and almost died just because South Africa joined Brics [the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa grouping] under my leadership, they said I was going to destroy the country,” he was quoted as saying in August.

The Zuma faction is rivalled by a group backing Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Condemning the widespread corruption in government, he said last week: “There is ample evidence of capture of key state institutions to advance private interests. Efforts to divert public resources into [the] hands of a few families and individuals is continuing.”

But Mr Ramaphosa is not a paragon of virtue either.

A former business tycoon who became phenomenally rich after apartheid ended, he was implicated in the Marikana massacre when police shot dead 34 mineworkers and wounded 78 others in 2012.

It was the deadliest police action in democratic South Africa, with Mr Ramaphosa being a director of the British Lonmin-owned mine where the shooting took place.
A protester raises her fist as others hold up a banner reading ‘Celebrate human rights, End police brutality’ during the commemoration of the third anniversary of the Marikana massacre, at the north beach in Durban, on August 16, 2015.

Although a commission of inquiry cleared him of any involvement in the massacre, his critics took a different view.

“You are the one who wrote emails and instigated the killing of 34 people,” opposition Economic Freedom Front (EFF) leader Julius Malema once told him in parliament.
“And sitting there, your hands have got blood of innocent people who died in Marikana and I think it is important for you to accept that you are responsible for the deaths of 34 people,” he added.

Although Mr Ramaphosa is a lawyer who was the architect of the liberal constitution South Africa adopted after the collapse of minority rule, he praised Zanu-PF in a solidarity message to its congress last year.

“As ANC, we envy Zanu-PF and admire the manner in which the party holds its conferences with so many people gathered here, having serious political discussions on important issues that have to do with your own transformation process,” Zimbabwe’s state-run Sunday Mail newspaper quoted him as saying at the time.

This may be rhetoric, as the ANC, unlike Zanu-PF, is democratic. It has had three leaders since white minority rule ended in 1994, and is set to elect its fourth leader at its congress next month when Ms Dlamini-Zuma and Mr Ramaphosa go head-to-head in the battle to succeed Mr Zuma.

This is in contrast to Zimbabwe, where Mr Mugabe was in power for 37 years.

Nor is South Africa like its northern neighbour.

As Daily Maverick news site columnist Stephen Grootes wrote earlier this year, South Africa is “a very different society”.

“The biggest difference is that we are a proper multiclass society, which means that people vote in different ways, and fight for different things. It is not easy to completely dominate a multiclass society in the way that Mugabe has managed to do for so long. Nothing is really going to change that, even in the medium term,” he said.
Nevertheless, there are worrying signs that the ANC could end up like Zanu-PF if it fails to rediscover its moral compass.

In recent years, rival factions have killed for power.

In Mr Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal, 35 people have been killed since last year, while violence has also marred ANC meetings in other parts of the country.
If this does not end, South Africa’s reputation as a peaceful and stable democracy will be threatened.

As leading South African cleric Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana warned in May, Mr Zuma’s government had “lost the moral radar”.

“We have come to recognise that South Africa may just be a few inches from the throes of a mafia state from which there may be no return, a recipe for a failed state,” he said.

Tens of thousands of South Africans from various political and civil society groups march to the Union Buildings to protest against South African president and demand his resignation on April 7, 2017 in Pretoria.

At the same time, the ANC’s electoral base is becoming increasingly like that of Zanu-PF – mainly rural, as urban voters, and racial minorities, abandon it because of the corruption within its ranks, and its failure to tackle high levels of unemployment.

But as the protests and celebrations of recent days in Zimbabwe showed, the ANC would be well advised to once again become a party which appeals to voters across racial and class lines.

In its editorial after Mr Mugabe’s resignation, Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper noted: “The overwhelming majority of the marchers on Saturday and those in the impromptu celebrations last night were the younger generations, young men and women in their twenties and thirties who had been born and had grown up in a free Zimbabwe.
“The symbols in the marches, the rallies and the street parties were not names of people or pictures on walls. There was just one symbol – the [national] flag.”
It showed the need to transcend the bonds forged in the liberation struggle, and to rally the entire nation to tackle deep-seated economic and social problems.

NewZimbabwe.com

24th November 2017

OPPOSITION Senator David Coltart has said that Zimbabwe’s “president” at large Phelekezela Mphoko has made history, describing him as the only president in the world who never visited the country he led until leaving office.

Mphoko, a key G40 member, was reportedly in Japan last Wednesday when the military launched its so-called Operation Restore Legacy aimed at rooting out the ruling Zanu PF party of criminals said the be causing socio-economic and political havoc in the country.

The “criminals” were claimed to have captured then president Robert Mugabe who dramatically resigned this Tuesday following intense pressure from the military and his own Zanu PF colleagues.

The military vowed to arrest the “criminals” and bring them to justice. Mphoko was thought to be among those targeted by the military operation.

However, legal experts the vice president has technically been acting head of state following Mugabe’s resignation but he has not been seen or heard from since last week’s bloodless coup.

Quipped Coltart on Twitter; “Meanwhile back at the ranch, acting President Mphoko of Zimbabwe looks to go down in history as the only president of a country never to set foot in his country for his entire tenure of office.”

Mphoko was re-called by Zanu PF last Sunday together with Mugabe, his wife Grace and 18 other officials as the ruling party’s succession war came to a head.

According to the local media, the vice president, who was scheduled to return home this Friday, altered his itinerary to land in Mozambique fearing he might be arrested in Harare.

Meanwhile, former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa will be inaugurated Friday as country’s new leader, taking over from Mugabe whose 37-year reign ended in disgrace this Tuesday.

The veteran leader resigned after legislators moved to impeach him.

Mail and Guardian

By Simon Allison

24th November 2017

On March 5 1983, at a rally in Victoria Falls, Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered a threat, using language that would be echoed 11 years later by the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide.

As The Chronicle reported at the time: “Likening the dissidents to cockroaches and bugs, the minister said the bandit menace had reached such epidemic proportion that the government had to bring ‘DDT’ [pesticide] to get rid of the bandits.”

Mnangagwa’s analogy would have been perfectly comprehensible to
his audience. The cockroaches and bugs were supporters of Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) and, more generally, members of the Ndebele ethnic group.

The “pesticide” would be deployed by the Fifth Brigade, the infamous North Korean-trained army unit that had already begun its crackdown in Matabeleland and the Midlands, home to most of Zimbabwe’s Ndebele population.

The crackdown was named Gukurahundi — meaning, in Shona, “the early rain that washes away the chaff”. It was extraordinarily brutal.

By the time the military operation was over, in late 1984, an estimated 20 000 people had been killed (this figure comes from the International Association of Genocide Scholars, though the death toll is almost impossible to verify). Many more people had been tortured or displaced.

Gukurahundi is the original sin upon which Mugabe’s authoritarian regime was founded, even though it took a few more decades before his glowing liberation hero reputation began to tarnish. As historian Stuart Doran put it, this was the “darkest period in the country’s post-independence history, notwithstanding the bloody notoriety of the last decade-and-a-half”.

And Mnangagwa, who now succeeds Mugabe as president, was allegedly involved in both inciting and executing the violence.

“Mnangagwa played a critically important role. You can’t describe him as the architect of Gukurahundi, because that was Mugabe, but he was a critical component,” said opposition politician David Coltart.

In his 2016 book, The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe, Coltart wrote in detail about the complicity of Mugabe and Mnangagwa in the massacres.

“Mnangagwa was minister of state security at the time, responsible for the Central Intelligence Organisation. The CIO raided Zapu’s offices well before the Fifth Brigade were deployed, and they got the details of Zapu structures — all the names of district chairmen and district committees. So when the Fifth Brigade were deployed, they were deployed with CIO operatives who had these names. And they literally went village by village,” Coltart told the Mail & Guardian.

“In 1983 they just killed people where they found them. And in 1984, when the political heat was too much … they changed tactics and they set up concentration camps. The Fifth Brigade would still go with the CIO, with those lists, and pick up these leaders and then take them to the concentration camp, where they were then murdered or tortured.”

Despite the evidence, Mnangagwa denies involvement in Gukurahundi. In a rare interview with the New Statesman last year, he blames everyone else instead: “How do I become the enforcer during Gukurahundi? We had the president, the minister of defence, the commander of the army, and I was none of that. My own enemies attack me left and right and that is what you are buying.”

But as he prepares to assume the presidency, it is Mnangagwa’s own words from that dark time that must surely come back to haunt him.

From another 1983 speech recorded by The Chronicle: “Blessed are they who will follow the path of the government laws, for their days on Earth will be increased. But woe unto those who will choose the path of collaboration with dissidents for we will certainly shorten their stay on Earth.”

Business Day

23rd November 2017

Opinion

The long succession battle in Zanu-PF has come to a bitter and sudden end — with a twist very few Zimbabwean citizens would have dared to imagine.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s ruler of nearly four decades, was forced to resign in shame on Tuesday after growing pressure from the public and his rejection by Zanu-PF, which removed him as party head on Sunday.

His wife, Grace, who had been under house arrest at their Harare mansion, was told by soldiers to “stay in the kitchen” as the military besieged their residence and moved to sideline the woman who thought she would be the next president.

The military, represented by army commander General Constantino Chiwenga, has emerged as the poster boys of the victory. As the dust begins to settle, it is clear the soldiers have pushed out Mugabe, ended Grace’s presidential ambitions and became the king makers of the Zanu-PF succession battle.

Mugabe’s allies, the group known as G40, had gone head to head in the race for the presidency with another faction, Lacoste, led by Emmerson Mnangagwa. Members of the G40 have either been forced into exile or detained by the military.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) says it is concerned by the arrests and detention by the military of people during Operation Restore Legacy — the military-led offensive that sent tanks into Harare’s central business district.

“The ZLHR urges the Zimbabwe Defence Forces [ZDF] to follow the due process of law, to guarantee protection of all pretrial rights and safety of any detainees and to grant them immediate and unequivocal access to their lawyers, family members and medical practitioners of choice,” the organisation said in a statement.

“The ZDF must prevent any incidents of torture, or other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and prevent the occurrence of any enforced disappearances or incommunicado detention,” it said.

Some of the exiled G40 members, such as key Mugabe strategist Jonathan Moyo, have been tweeting their thoughts.

“There’ll never be anyone like Mugabe. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have served my country under and with him. I’m proud that I stood with and by this iconic leader during the trying moments of the last days of his presidency. Democracy requires politics to lead the gun,” Moyo tweeted as Mugabe resigned on Tuesday.

Like nearly 20 other former high-ranking party officials — including political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao, vice-president Phelekezela Mphoko and finance minister Ignatius Chombo — Moyo has been expelled from Zanu-PF.

David Coltart, a former education minister and an official in the Movement for Democratic Change, says the demise of the G40 faction marks the end of the succession battle, which had become the top feature in the affairs of the ruling party.

He doubts that new Zanu-PF head Mnangagwa would reach out to the core leaders of the G40 faction.

“But, undoubtedly, he will try to woo some of its supporters on the periphery. He needs that bloc of support in the run-up to the election next year,” he says.

Mnangagwa may be able to command obedience within Zanu-PF as he strengthens control over the politics of survival and opportunism in the party, but he has a credibility deficit to address, especially outside of Zanu-PF, both in and outside of Zimbabwe

International Crisis Group Southern Africa director Piers Pigou says it will be interesting to see how Mnangagwa navigates the narrative that only the G40 “cabal” has been responsible for Zimbabwe’s mess.

“We all know culpability is much broader in this regard. Mnangagwa may be able to command obedience within Zanu-PF as he strengthens control over the politics of survival and opportunism in the party, but he has a credibility deficit to address, especially outside of Zanu-PF, both in and outside of Zimbabwe. It is a massive challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity,” Pigou says.

How it came about that the G40 faction, which earlier in November had come within an arm’s length of power, was driven out of the country can be explained in the missteps of Grace. She had taken on Mnangagwa, an army man before becoming a civilian in the government and moving up the party ranks.

Grace had been on a vicious warpath since she went on youth interface rallies — which were campaigning in disguise ahead of the 2018 elections. The rallies were public lynchings — first of officials seen to be close to Mnangagwa, and then Grace called for his dismissal from office for plotting to succeed Mugabe.

For Grace, Mnangagwa represented the last of the liberation fighters in Zanu-PF who could stand up to her — hence the vicious attacks, similar and consistent to those she aimed at vice-president Joice Mujuru in 2014, which led to her being routed from the party.

In some circles, it was seen as a fight between two generations — the older, represented by Mnangagwa, which had a stake in the country’s history, against a younger generation represented by Grace, which comprised upstarts and political novices.

The G40 generation lived lavishly, with an affinity for luxury vehicles such as Rolls-Royces and Maybachs. Their showing-off was despised by the citizens, who were hard-hit by economic hardship.

Grace was seen as the queen of profligacy — in her final days as first lady, she went on a property buying spree in Johannesburg and Harare.

She took ownership of a new Rolls-Royce and was reported to have had an interest in the establishment of a new airline that was primed to elbow out the $300m debt-riddled national airline, Air Zimbabwe. Her behaviour — beating up model Gabriella Engels in SA in August — further ensured her isolation.

She may have enjoyed some public hero worship and praise, but behind closed doors and in hushed tones, conversations featuring Grace were about how unrestrained she was and how Mugabe was probably having it hard at home.

Tshinga Dube, a military man of 22 years and a former cabinet minister who has fallen out of favour with Mugabe, says the elderly leader had lost the willpower to resist his wife and her demands.

“At 93-years-old, you don’t want to be fighting. You are old and tired and Mugabe simply didn’t have it in him to resist the demands of his greedy wife Grace and those of the people around her,” Dube says.

The axing of Mnangagwa on November 6, after a weekend in which Grace belittled Mnangagwa in an address and was booed at a rally, set off a chain of events that backfired on the G40 faction.

Mnangagwa was fired from the government and the party and was forced to flee into exile — after he had been warned of an assassination attempt.

He later bitterly pointed out in a statement that the security detail usually afforded former deputy presidents was immediately withdrawn for him, leaving him vulnerable and exposed as political tensions soared.

Last week, the Zimbabwean military stepped in to help one of their own.

Grace had hardly won herself any favours when she criticised and dressed down Chiwenga and dared soldiers to shoot her during her rallies.

“Mnangagwa was attacked separately, so were the army and the war veterans. They all have a similar liberation history and became allies because they had a common enemy, which was Grace,” says Arnold Tsunga, Africa director of the International Commission of Jurists.

“It was clear that if Mugabe had managed to deal with Mnangagwa, he [would be] coming after the army commander. So for Chiwenga’s part, moving in was a pre-emptive strike to protect his position.”

BBC

22nd November 2017

Zimbabwe’s incoming leader Emmerson Mnangagwa has hailed a “new and unfolding democracy” after returning from exile to replace Robert Mugabe. He also vowed to create jobs in a country where some estimates say 90% of people are unemployed.

“We want to grow our economy, we want peace, we want jobs, jobs, jobs,” he told a cheering crowd in Harare. Mr Mnangagwa, who fled to South Africa two weeks ago, is to be made the new president on Friday, state TV said. His dismissal led the ruling party and the military to intervene and force an end to Mr Mugabe’s 37-year long rule.

Mugabe has gone, but will Zimbabwe change?

He told supporters at the headquarters of the ruling Zanu-PF party that he had been the subject of several assassination plots and thanked the army for running the “process” of removing Mr Mugabe peacefully.

The news that 93-year-old Mr Mugabe was stepping down sparked wild celebrations across the country late into Tuesday night.

It came in the form of a letter read out in parliament on Tuesday, abruptly halting impeachment proceedings against him.

In it, Mr Mugabe said he was resigning to allow a smooth and peaceful transfer of power, and that his decision was voluntary.

A spokesman for the ruling Zanu-PF party said Mr Mnangagwa, 71, would serve the remainder of Mr Mugabe’s term until elections that are due to be held by September 2018.
Nicknamed the “crocodile” because of his political cunning, Mr Mnangagwa met South African President Jacob Zuma before leaving for Zimbabwe.

Thousands of party supporters waited for hours to welcome Mr Mnangagwa in his first public appearance since he emerged from hiding.
During his 20-minute speech, he corrected himself at least once for referring to Mr Mugabe as president rather than former president. His message was largely conciliatory.
But he also relished his stunning return to power and successful removal of Mr Mugabe. He brought up Grace Mugabe’s speech a fortnight ago, in which – meaning him – she said we must “deal with the snake by crushing its head”. A day later he was fired.

“I wonder which snake’s head was crushed?” he said to loud cheers.

Mr Mnangagwa’s firing by Mr Mugabe two weeks ago triggered an unprecedented political crisis in the country.
It had been seen by many as an attempt to clear the way for Grace Mugabe to succeed her husband as leader and riled the military leadership, which stepped in and put Mr Mugabe under house arrest.

Under the constitution, the role of successor would normally go to a serving vice-president, and one still remains in post – Phelekezela Mphoko.
However, Mr Mphoko – a key ally of Mrs Mugabe – has just been fired by Zanu-PF and is not believed to be in the country. In his absence, the party has nominated Mr Mnangagwa, the speaker of parliament confirmed.

Some have questioned whether the handover to Mr Mnangagwa will bring about real change in the country.
He was national security chief at a time when thousands of civilians died in post-independence conflict in the 1980s, though he denies having blood on his hands.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told the BBC he hoped that Zimbabwe was on a “new trajectory” that would include free and fair elections.
He said Mr Mugabe should be allowed to “go and rest for his last days”.

Prominent opposition politician David Coltart tweeted: “We have removed a tyrant but not yet a tyranny.”

African Union president Alpha Condé said he was “truly delighted” by the news, but expressed regret at the way Mr Mugabe’s rule had ended. “It is a shame that he is leaving through the back door and that he is forsaken by the parliament,” he said.

At 93, Mr Mugabe was – until his resignation – the world’s oldest leader. He once proclaimed that “only God” could remove him.
Lawmakers from the ruling party and opposition roared with glee when his resignation letter was read aloud in parliament on Wednesday.

Activist and political candidate Vimbaishe Musvaburi broke down in tears of joy while speaking to the BBC.

“We are tired of this man, we are so glad he’s gone. We don’t want him anymore and yes, today, it’s victory,” she said.

The Guardian

By Jason Burke

21st November 2017

Historically, African takeovers have been seismic and violent, but now participants are more wary of international opinion

It looked like a coup from a movie: a convoy of armoured vehicles, the president under house arrest, and the general on the nation’s screens talking of “restoring stability” in the small hours of the morning.

But since the military takeover in Zimbabwe a week ago events have departed from the script. President Robert Mugabe has not been harmed and remains in power, at least theoretically. When he refused to resign on live television on Sunday night, there were no repercussions. To oust him, parliament are using a cumbersome process of impeachment.

There is a stark contrast with many other coups d’état in Africa over the years, which have often seen heavy fighting as the military tried to seize power, and sometimes the death of the incumbent leader.

“I think it is partly a Zimbabwe thing and a lot to do with the personality of Robert Mugabe. He is known as a liberation hero and revered in most African states despite the huge damage he has done to his country, and the military here understood that to hurt him would incur the wrath of much of Africa,” said David Coltart, a senior opposition politician in Zimbabwe.

There have been more than 200 military coups since 1960 in Africa, many leading to seismic changes in the history of countries and regions as well as significant bloodshed. General Idi Amin seized power in Uganda from President Milton Obote in 1971, unleashing a reign of terror still remembered today. The coup d’état in 2012 by mutinying soldiers in Mali so destabilised the country that it allowed Islamic militants to seize much of its northern half, necessitating an intervention by French troops to restore order. Nigeria has seen eight military takeovers.

Leaders have also been assassinated while still in power. Laurent Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo was shot dead in 2001, for example.

The years of the cold war generated the highest frequency of coups, and much of the worst associated violence.

Yet this has moderated more recently and over the last 15 years there has been a “hardening anti-coup attitude”, according to Nic Cheeseman, professor of democracy at Birmingham University in the UK.

“Leaders don’t have much of an incentive to encourage free and fair elections but a coup threatens everybody, so it is much easier to get a consensus on anti-coup norms than democratic norms … People are getting smarter at avoiding criticism for coups,” Cheeseman said.

This has meant leaders of takeover are much more careful to manage domestic and international opinion than before. If a transfer of power is declared unconstitutional it can lead to a nation being suspended from the African Union (AU) and suffering significant consequences in terms of aid and investment.

Any new administration in Zimbabwe would have little chance of winning the massive funding required to restructure the collapsing economy if the international consensus was that it was illegal.

Both the AU and the regional South African Development Community (SADC) have been guarded in their statements about the situation in Zimbabwe, and have withheld any endorsement of the takeover.

On Tuesday the SADC meets in Angola to discuss the crisis there. The generals in Harare will be watching their conclusions carefully.

The Guardian

By Jason Burke

20th November 2017

Draft impeachment motion published by Zanu-PF party but support of opposition parties may be necessary after arrest or flight of some MPs

Robert Mugabe faces being stripped of his office by parliament if he does not resign as president within days, as the political crisis triggered by a military takeover in Zimbabwe moves into a second week.

The 93-year-old had been given a deadline of noon local time on Monday to resign as head of state or face impeachment when parliament reconvenes on Tuesday.

Mugabe ignored the deadline and instead called a cabinet meeting for 9am on Tuesday. A notice from his chief secretary said all ministers should attend.

Adding to the confusion, Constantin Chiwenga, the army chief who took power last week, held a press conference at which he described further consultations with “his excellency President Robert Mugabe” held in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Chiwenga said Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former vice-president whose firing two weeks ago triggered the military takeover, would return to Zimbabwe shortly and was in touch with the president.

“The nation will be advised of the result of talks between the two,” he said.

The general made no mention of the potential impeachment of Mugabe, who was stripped of his party offices by Zanu-PF on Sunday.

A draft impeachment motion published by Zanu-PF said the ageing leader was a “source of instability” who had shown disrespect for the rule of law and was to blame for an unprecedented economic tailspin over the past 15 years.

Although Zanu-PF has the required two-thirds majority in parliament necessary to remove Mugabe, the arrest or flight of some MPs may mean the support of opposition parties is needed for the impeachment motion to pass.

Lawmakers from Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will hold a meeting on Tuesday to decide whether to join Zanu-PF to impeach Mugabe, according to officials.

David Coltart, the MDC’s secretary for legal affairs, said he supported the move in principle. “I have long felt he should have been impeached for what he has done of the last decades and for how he has violated the constitution,” he said.

Mugabe stunned the southern African country by failing to resign as expected in a televised speech on Sunday night. Instead, his rambling address offered no substantial concessions to the tens of thousands of people who have marched calling for his resignation, though it did exonerate the army commanders who led the military takeover last week.

The autocrat called for compatriots to avoid “bitterness or revengefulness, which would not make us any better … Zimbabweans,” and said he would preside over a special congress of the ruling Zanu-PF party scheduled for next month.

An array of senior commanders sat beside Mugabe as he made his speech. Constantino Chiwenga, the general who led the takeover, turned the president’s pages as he spoke.

Zimbabwe’s powerful war veterans have claimed Mugabe swapped speeches to avoid resigning during the televised address, and they repeated their call for him to go.

“We were disappointed yesterday in the midst of all those generals he appeared to swap [speeches],” Chris Mutsvangwa, who leads the war veterans, told a press conference on Monday morning.

He said the veterans would call for further protests – including a sit-in outside Mugabe’s Harare residence, where he is being held under house arrest – if the president did not heed calls to quit.

Crowds gathered to pray at lunchtime on Sunday in Harare in one impromptu protest, while students called for Mugabe’s resignation at a mass meeting at the city’s University of Zimbabwe campus.

It is unclear how long the procedure to impeach the president might take but it is likely to last several days. Both houses of the Zimbabwean parliament will have to sit at least twice, with the impeachment motion also going to a committee of senators. If it is passed, Mugabe, who as president is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, would then be reduced to the status of any other citizen.

Mnangagwa, 75, was appointed interim leader of Zanu-PF on Sunday and is widely expected to take over from Mugabe as president. Mnangagwa, who is known as “the Crocodile”, orchestrated repeated crackdowns on Zimbabwe’s opposition under Mugabe’s rule.

“There is a real danger that [Mnangagwa] can take over Zanu-PF lock, stock and barrel and enjoy the absolute loyalty of the military, too. He’s younger and more energetic than Mugabe,” said the MDC’s Coltart. “There is no doubt he will impose a Chinese style of government, which is more favourable towards business, but he will curtail democratic freedoms.”

The military has said it has no intention of taking permanent control of government but has indicated it does not want to leave Mugabe in office. The military commanders claim last week’s takeover was necessary to remove “criminals” close to the president, a reference to Grace Mugabe and her “G40” faction.

Grace Mugabe, 52, has not been seen since the takeover. Sources told the Guardian she was in her husband’s Harare residence when he was detained on Tuesday and had not moved since.

A spokesman for Theresa May urged a peaceful and swift resolution to the uncertain political situation. “We don’t yet know how developments in Zimbabwe are going to play out but what does appear clear is that Mugabe has lost the support of the people and of his party,” the UK prime minister’s spokesman said.

An analysis of social media by Brands Eye, a South Africa-based opinion analysis firm, shows that reactions online to the coup among Zimbabweans have been largely neutral, though the overall sentiment expressed towards the coup has been more positive than negative. The references to Mnangagwa and Chiwenga became more positive in the days after the coup, though there were more negative than positive references to both.