FORSAKEN; THE ZANU-PF CULT CALLS ON MUGABE TO GO

Ruling ZANU-PF party to hold rally after calling for Mr. Mugabe's resignation; Army appears to want a transition to former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

President Robert Mugabe's own ruling ZANU-PF party wants him to step down and plans to hold a rally in Zimbabwe's capital Harare on November 18 to make the point.

Mr. Mugabe, at Zimbabwe's helm since independence from Britain in 1980, faces the starkest challenge ever to his rule after the army seized power on November 15, saying it was targeting "criminals" around the nonagenarian leader.

ZANU-PF called on November 17 for Mr. Mugabe to resign, the main state newspaper The Herald reported, a clear sign that the ageing leader's authority has collapsed after the Army takeover.

The newspaper said that ZANU-PF branches in all 10 Provinces had met and had also called for Mr. Mugabe's wife Grace, whose ambitions to succeed her husband triggered the political crisis, to resign from the party.

A senior member of ZANU-PF earlier told Reuters the party wanted their long-time President gone. "If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on Sunday," the source said. "When that is done, it's impeachment on Tuesday."

The Herald reported that ZANU-PF would convene a special Central Committee meeting on November 19 to "realign the revolutionary party with current political developments".

Pointedly, the military said it "fully supports" a "solidarity march" — apparently separate from the ZANU-PF event — in Harare on November 18, part of an apparent groundswell of anti-Mugabe sentiment unleashed by the dramatic events of the past few days.

The Army said it had been "approached by several private volunteer organisations seeking to freely move and express their desires" and they could do so if they were orderly and peaceful.

Harare has been calm as the coup has unfolded but the armed forces also said in a statement that "people have been warned against looting".

The Army appears to want Mr. Mugabe to go quietly and allow a transition to Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking last week as Vice-President sparked the Army action. A goal of the generals is to prevent Mr. Mugabe handing power to his wife, Ms. Grace Mugabe, 41 years his junior, who appeared on the cusp of power after Mr. Mnangagwa was pushed out.

Mr. Mugabe, 93, who calls himself the grand old man of African politics, looks to be running out of options.

The Army is camped on his doorstep. Ms. Grace Mugabe is under house arrest and her key political allies are in military custody. All the main pillars of Mr. Mugabe's rule have turned on him or have offered no support.

The police have shown no resistance, while Chris Mutsvangwa, the leader of Zimbabwe's influential war veterans, said on November 17 that Mr. Mugabe would not be allowed to resist the military and remain in power.

And ZANU-PF, which built a cult of personality around its leader, has now deserted him.