Mugabe resigns amid parliamentary impeachment proceedings, ends 37-year rule in Zimbabwe
President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe has finally stepped down amid parliamentary impeachment proceedings.
The resignation, done via a letter submitted to parliament, House of Assembly Tuesday ends Mugabe’s near four-decade reign as the strongman of Zimbabwe, according to the speaker, Jacob Mudenda.
Mudenda announced Mugabe’s resignation during a joint sitting of lawmakers in Harare, the capital, called to vote on a motion of impeachment of the 93-year-old leader, who was the world’s oldest-serving leader.
Mugabe’s resignation came days after the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party fired him as its leader and ordered him to step down. Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, who Mugabe dismissed as vice president this month, will take over as interim leader and be Zanu-PF’s presidential candidate in elections next year, the party said.
“We have fought the lion and won,” Lovemore Matuke, Zanu-PF’s chief whip, said in an interview after the announcement.
The ruling party’s decision to dump the president came four days after the military placed him under house arrest and detained several of his closest allies — a move triggered by Mnangagwa’s dismissal. Mugabe initially dug in his heels, missing a party deadline to quit by noon on Monday or face impeachment, before finally agreeing to go.
The moves against Mugabe were the culmination of a battle for control of the ruling party between a military-aligned faction that’s coalesced around Mnangagwa and another known as the Generation-40, which wants the president’s wife, Grace Mugabe, to succeed him. Mnangagwa emerged as the victor, with the party expelling Grace and her allies.
