HARARE, Zimbabwe —
Robert Mugabe, 93, who ruled Zimbabwe with an iron grip until the military placed
him under house arrest last week, stunned the nation on Sunday night by
refusing to say whether he would resign.
Many political observers and fellow Zimbabweans had
been expecting Mr. Mugabe to step down as president after nearly 40 years in
power. But the embattled president gave a 20-minute televised speech that
acknowledged problems in the nation — and he vowed to soldier on.
“The era of victimization and arbitrary decisions”
must end, Mr. Mugabe said while sitting at a table, flanked by members of the
military and other officials, including a priest.
He also declared that he would preside over his
governing party’s congress in a few weeks. “I will preside over its processes,
which must not be prepossessed by any acts calculated to undermine it or to
compromise the outcomes in the eyes of the public,” he said.
Observers questioned how
Mr. Mugabe could oversee the congress if he was no longer leader of the party:
His address came hours after he was expelled
as leader of his party, ZANU-PF, which gave him until noon on Monday to
resign or face impeachment by Parliament.
Party officials earlier
on Sunday also removed his wife, Grace
Mugabe, as head of the ZANU-PF Women’s League and barred her from the party
for life. So were Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe’s minister of higher and tertiary
education; and Saviour Kasukuwere, the minister of local government. Mr.
Mugabe’s second vice president, Phelekezela Mphoko, who had served for three
years, was fired.
Mrs. Mugabe, who had amassed wealth and power in the
party and was her husband’s likely successor, has not been seen in public since
Wednesday.
ZANU-PF appointed her
rival, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the
vice president previously fired by the president, to take Mr. Mugabe’s
place as leader of the party.
The harsh rebuke by the party’s central committee came
after emergency talks to address the political crisis. Under the Constitution,
Mr. Mugabe remains president despite the party’s expulsion.
Announcing the decision on Sunday, Patrick Chinamasa,
the party’s secretary for legal affairs, said that Mr. Mugabe “hereby is
recalled as first secretary and president of the ZANU-PF party.”
“He is therefore asked to resign forthwith,” Mr.
Chinamasa said. “In the event that the resignation would not have been tendered
by midday 20th of November, 2017, the ZANU-PF chief whip was ordered to issue
proceedings for the removal of the president.”
Cheers and dancing broke out in the building after the
decision to expel Mr. Mugabe as party leader.
“There is a case at the end!” a group of youths
chanted after storming an open space outside ZANU-PF headquarters.
Many Western news outlets
had alerted the world to a pending resignation, citing confidential sources.
But it was not to be — at least in the speech on Sunday night.
Mr. Mugabe made the rambling address to the southern
African nation about 9 p.m. local time after intense negotiations at the State
House with Army generals over the conditions for his departure, the state
broadcaster reported.
Among the men sitting off to the
side during Mr. Mugabe’s speech was Constantino Chiwenga, the very Army
commander who had placed him under
house arrest. Mr. Mugabe spoke haltingly but deliberately, sometimes
repeating phrases and appearing to lose his place among the pages before him.
He alluded to the military takeover and his talks with the generals.
“I as the president of Zimbabwe and
their commander in chief do acknowledge the issues they have drawn my attention
to,” he said, “and do believe that these were raised in the spirt of honesty
and out of deep and patriotic concern for the stability for our nation and for
the welfare of our people.”
Among the issues discussed was the
economy, which, Mr. Mugabe allowed, was “going through a difficult patch.” He
later said the government would unveil business and entrepreneurial programs to
help the economy.
“Today’s meeting with the command element has
underscored the need for us to collectively start processes that return our
nation to normalcy,” he said, “so all our people can go about their business
unhindered, in an environment of perfect peace and security.”
As his speech came to a close, he
invoked a “wartime mantra.” He then said, “I thank you, and good night.” Then
he shook the hands of the men who had appeared on camera with him.
Some Zimbabweans reacted to the
speech with disgust. Trevor Ncube, an entrepreneur and newspaper publisher, said on
Twitter: “Robert is finished,” adding, “He is likely to be impeached. Worst
speech ever.”
On Saturday, thousands of
Zimbabweans took to
the streets to celebrate the autocratic ruler’s apparent downfall after the
military seized control on Wednesday but was careful not to call it a coup. The
military said it wanted to target the criminals around Mr. Mugabe who had
pillaged the country’s economy.
Once respected as a liberation icon
who went into exile after fighting colonial rule, Mr. Mugabe had become
isolated from fellow party officials. Zimbabwe’s only leader since the country
gained independence from Britain in 1980, he had faced little opposition from
the party rank and file.
But on Saturday, even his fellow
veterans of the fight for independence joined the march of tens of thousands of
Zimbabweans who danced sang with joy at the prospect of Mr. Mugabe’s rule
ending.
On Sunday, Mr. Mugabe met for a
second round of talks with the generals to negotiate a dignified departure, the
state-run broadcaster said. A Catholic priest, Fidelis Mukonori, mediated.
Last week, a majority of the party’s
leaders recommended
that Mr. Mugabe should be expelled. In a resolution, they said he should be
removed for taking the advice of “counterrevolutionaries and agents of
neo-imperialism”; for mistreating his vice president, Mr. Mnangagwa; and for
encouraging “factionalism.”
They urged the “immediate and
unconditional reinstatement” of Mr. Mnangagwa, at least until the national
elections scheduled for next year. On Sunday, the leaders put force behind
their recommendations.
The party elevated Mr. Mnangagwa,
75, to the role of party leader and nominated him as its sole presidential
candidate for the 2018 elections — a position that the committee said would be
confirmed by the party’s congress in December.
Mr. Mnangagwa’s firing had
positioned Mr. Mugabe’s wife to succeed him as president, but it appears to
have been an overreach that singled out an erstwhile ally with strong support
from the military.
The vice president, however, is seen
as no salve for a nation facing steep unemployment and crumbling public
infrastructure. Critics accuse him of being politically ruthless. He is also
unpopular in parts of the country.
He lost his parliamentary seat at
least twice, once after being accused
of firebombing his opponent’s house, according to an editor of The
Zimbabwean newspaper.
Norimitsu Onishi contributed
reporting.
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