ROBERT MUGABE’S 37-year hold on power could collapse today after his MPs launched a bid to impeach him.
The main charge put to the Zimbabwe president, 93, by his Zanu-PF party is allowing his wife Grace, 52, to ‘usurp government powers’.
However, Mr Mugabe (below), who astonished observers after failing to resign in a rambling TV address on Sunday, appeared defiant last night and called a Cabinet meeting today, which all ministers ‘should attend’. A tweet by one, Jonathan Moyo, indicated several had left the country.
Zanu-PF party’s deputy secretary for legal affairs, Paul Mangwana, said politicians would move a motion to impeach Mr Mugabe today. A parliamentary committee would report tomorrow and officials would ‘vote him out’.
The impeachment motion reads: ‘There has been no meaningful development in the country in the past 15 years.’ It said this resulted in ‘an unprecedented economic tailspin’, which saw hyperinflation in the millions of per cent during 2008.
‘The president has become the country’s source of instability,’ it adds.
Impeachment requires a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament but some believe Mr Mugabe may yet outwit his opponents.
Mr Mangwana said the ruling party needs the backing of the opposition MDC group, who were supporting them.Veterans Association leader Chris Mutsvangwa said: ‘We are saying Mugabe go now.’ Students at Zimbabwe University boycotted exams yesterday over Mr Mugabe’s refusal to resign.
His sacked former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa, nicknamed ‘the crocodile’, has replaced him as party leader after he defied a deadline to resign yesterday.
Dewa Mavhinga of Human Rights Watch warned Mr Mnangagwa ‘has a terrible human rights record going back to the early 1980s. This is no saint’.
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