MASS DEMONSTRATION CELEBRATES END TO ZIMBABWEAN PRESIDENT’S 37-YEAR RULE

 

                Pressure intensified on Robert Mugabe to resign as president of Zimbabwe on Saturday as tens of thousands of Zimbabweans flooded the streets of Harare for a mass rally calling for an end to his 37-year rule.The armed forces now in control of the country said it backed the mass demonstration, which some predict will be the biggest public rally since independence in 1980. The police authorities, which for decades have clamped down on non-sanctioned public gatherings, quickly gave permission for the demonstration.In a statement, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces said: "As long as the planned march remains orderly, peaceful and in tandem with the fundamental bill of rights and within the confines of the country's constitution and without hate speech and incitement to cause violence, it fully supports the march."It urged people who were travelling to Harare for the rally, including war veterans, opposition parties and Mr Mugabe's own ruling Zanu-PF party, to return peacefully to their provinces after it was finished and warned against looting.

 

Many people working in a central Harare market said they would be attending the rally. "This is like a second independence day," said one man selling electronic equipment on the pavement who declined to give his name. Some Zimbabweans were comparing the show of public force to the Arab Spring. On Friday, Evan Mawire, a pastor who founded the #ThisFlag opposition movement to Mr Mugabe, tweeted: "Tomorrow Zimbabweans stand together for a #FreshStart." All 10 of the ruling Zanu-PF's provincial co-ordinating committees have called on 93-year-old Mr Mugabe to step down. They said he had lost the capacity to run the country because of his age, according to the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Chris Mutsvangwa, chairman of the influential war veterans' association, said Mr Mugabe, who has led the country since independence, must "make a decision promptly to leave office [or] we'll settle the score".In an unusual show of disrespect for a man many still revere, Mr Mutsvangwa ridiculed the president's liberation credentials, saying he had never been within 400km of the front lines. Talks between the president and the military have reached apparent stalemate. General Constantino Chiwenga, who ordered tanks on to the streets this week and who placed Mr Mugabe under house arrest, met the president on Thursday in an effort to hammer out a deal.

               

 

                On Friday, Mr Mugabe was allowed to make his first public appearance since the military takeover, attending a university graduation ceremony, at which he dozed off.The defence force said on Friday it would continue to engage with the president and that it had made considerable progress in weeding out what it called the "criminal elements" around him. There have been reports that the president is resisting military pressure to resign and end his near-four-decade rule. But a senior Zanu-PF official told the Financial Times the army might not insist Mr Mugabe step down. Instead, it had asked him to ensure that Grace Mugabe, his wife, who had been manoeuvring to succeed as president, left politics for good. Mr Mugabe might then be able to serve out his term, which ends next year. Lloyd Msipa, a Zimbabwean with close ties to the leading protagonists, said the time was up for Mr Mugabe whatever the military's intentions. Mr Mugabe, he said, was resisting the elevation of Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice-president he fired last week but whom analysts say is poised to take over.

 

"He's in denial," Mr Msipa said of Mr Mugabe. If he had not resigned by Saturday afternoon, Mr Msipa said, people would march on his house to force him out.The military has detained several cabinet members deemed to be part of Mrs Mugabe's faction in Zanu-PF, among them Ignatius Chombo, finance minister, and Jonathan Moyo, education minister. Mrs Mugabe has been at the centre of a vicious succession battle in Zanu-PF and is loathed by many of its liberation veterans. The military intervention came a week after the president sacked Mr Mnangagwa, a veteran himself, in apparent deference to his wife's increasingly obvious ambitions. Mabvundwi Kames Mabvundwi, a Zanu-PF member and academic, said Mr Mugabe had no option but to go. "He's senile and no longer in charge. The wife is in charge," Mr Mabvundwi said. He said he believed that Mr Mnangagwa, who has been in exile since his dismissal, was the man to spearhead a "reform agenda". "He's the best person to lead that transition," Mr Mabvundwi said. If Gen Chiwenga cannot persuade Mr Mugabe to accept a deal, the army may consider other measures, including impeachment, which needs a two-thirds parliamentary majority, to force him out, said Welshman Ncube, an opposition leader.Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said: "In the interests of the people of Zimbabwe, Mr Robert Mugabe must resign, step down immediately in line with national sentiment."  There was as "urgent need for a road map to return to legitimacy" that should involve a "negotiated and inclusive transitional mechanism" and eventual democratic elections.

 

 

                Didymus Mutasa, a veteran who spent years by Mr Mugabe's side until he was expelled from Zanu-PF in 2014, said the army had not intervened to open up the political process. "I'm not sure this was justified," he said. "They seem to have come to impose their own candidate, Emmerson Mnangagwa," Mr Mutasa added. "That's wrong." Joice Mujuru, a former vice-president forced out of Zanu-PF by Mrs Mugabe in 2014, also called for resignation. "There's no doubt that we are in need of a transitional arrangement," she said. "Our country's reconstruction and national healing process can only be a product of free, fair and credible elections." Members of the Southern African Development Community, a regional bloc, have called on the army to avoid an "unconstitutional" change in government and urged "calm and restraint". Mr Mugabe's apparent refusal to bow to military pressure, combined with SADC's stance, could still delay a transition of power by weeks, analysts said.