The Zimbabwean’s President, Robert Mugabe, has
refused to resign after a military coup, insisting that he remains the only
legitimate ruler of the country.
But pressure is mounting on the 93-year-old
former guerrilla to accept offers of a graceful exit, sources said on Thursday.
A political source, who spoke to senior allies
holed up with Mugabe and his wife, Grace, in his lavish “Blue Roof” Harare
compound, said Mugabe had no plans to resign voluntarily ahead of elections
scheduled for next year.
“It is a sort of stand-off, a stalemate. They are
insisting the President must finish his term,” Reuters quoted the
source as saying.
The army’s takeover signalled the collapse in
less than 36 hours of the security, intelligence and patronage networks that
sustained Mugabe through 37 years in power and built him into the “Grand Old
Man” of African politics.
A priest mediating between Mugabe and the
generals, who seized power on Wednesday in what they called a targeted
operation against “criminals” in Mugabe’s entourage, has made little headway, a
senior political source told Reuters.
Opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, called for
Mugabe’s departure “in the interest of the people,” in a statement read to
reporters, Tsvangirai pointedly referred to him as “Mr. Robert Mugabe,” not
President.
The army appears to want Mugabe, who has ruled
Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, to go quietly and allow a smooth and
bloodless transition to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice-president who Mugabe sacked
last week, triggering the political crisis.
The main goal of the generals is to prevent
Mugabe from handing power to his wife, Grace, 41 years his junior, who has
built a following among the ruling party’s youth wing and appeared on the cusp
of power after Mnangagwa was pushed out.
The last of Africa’s state founders from the
heyday of the struggle against European colonisation still in power, Mugabe is
still seen by many Africans as a liberation hero. But he is reviled in the West
as a despot whose disastrous handling of the economy and willingness to resort
to violence to maintain power pauperised one of Africa’s most promising states.
ZANU-PF youth leader Kudzai Chipanga, a vocal
Mugabe supporter, publicly apologised for opposing the army after being marched
by soldiers into the state television headquarters to read out a statement,
sources at the broadcaster said.
He was then taken back to the army’s main KGVI
(pronounced KG Six) barracks in Harare, where Finance Minister, Ignatius Chombo
is also being held, an army source said.
Video footage obtained by Reuters from
the houses of two key allies of Grace Mugabe – cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo
and Saviour Kasukuwere – indicated that the army was also prepared to use force
if necessary.
Moyo’s front door was blown open with explosives,
scattering glass across the entrance hall, while the inside walls of
Kasukuwere’s house were pocked with bullet holes.
The pair managed to escape on the evening of the
coup and made it to Mugabe’s compound, where they remain under effective house
arrest, one political source said.
It was gathered on Thursday that one motive
for the military might have been knowledge of a plan orchestrated by Grace
Mugabe and her supporters to have up to 40 senior officers and officials seen
as backing Mnangagwa removed from their posts this week.
During his rule, Mugabe ensured the continuing
loyalty of the military by offering privileges and lucrative business
opportunities to top soldiers. The transfer of these to the first lady and her
faction would have been a bitter blow. One opposition official said
negotiations had been ongoing for several months with “certain people within
the army.”
Zimbabwe faces severe economic problems. It is
struggling to pay for imports due to a shortage of dollars, which has also
caused acute cash shortages. Restoring some measure of economic health will be
a priority of any incoming administration.
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