Opposition activists and the influential liberation war veterans association announced more demonstrations to pressure the 93-year-old Robert Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of State, to step down after 37 years in power.
“Your time is up,” veterans association leader Chris Mutsvangwa said at a press conference. “You should have the dignity and decency to spare the country of further turmoil by simply announcing your departure immediately.”
Zimbabweans were astonished that Mr. Mugabe, flanked by the military in his national address on Sunday night, remained defiant.
The war veterans’ association will go to court to argue that Mr. Mugabe is “derelict of his executive duty,” Mr. Mutsvangwa said.
Some ruling party members said an impeachment process likely wouldn’t lead to Mr. Mugabe’s immediate resignation and could take days to complete. Mr. Mugabe was stripped of his party leadership on Sunday by the Central Committee of the ruling ZANU-PF but said in his speech he would preside over a party congress next month.
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The congress is expected to ratify his firing as party chief, the expulsion of the unpopular first lady and the naming of Mr. Mugabe’s recently fired deputy to succeed him.
Amid the confusion, some people in the capital, Harare, are now more cautious about talking to reporters. That contrasts with the jubilation and open condemnation of Mugabe over the weekend, when the bulk of Harare’s population of roughly 1.6 million appeared to be in the streets, dancing and taking selfies with soldiers in an event backed by the military.
At the University of Zimbabwe on Monday, students protested and refused to sit for exams, singing and demanding that Mr. Mugabe step down. The spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Students Union, Zivai Mhetu, said they want all universities shut down until he does.
Mr. Mugabe in his speech acknowledged “a whole range of concerns” of Zimbabweans about the chaotic state of the government and its collapsed economy, but he stopped short of what many in the southern African nation were hoping for a statement that he was stepping down.
“I, as the president of Zimbabwe, as their commander-in-chief, do acknowledge the issues they have drawn my attention to, and do believe that these were raised in the spirit of honesty and out of deep and patriotic concern for the stability of our nation and for the welfare of our people,” Mr. Mugabe said.
The deputy whom Mr. Mugabe fired, former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is positioned to become Zimbabwe’s next leader after the party committee made him its nominee.
The military appears to favour a voluntary resignation to maintain a veneer of legality in the political transition. Mr. Mugabe, in turn, is likely using whatever leverage he has left to try to preserve his legacy or even protect himself and his family from possible prosecution.
