It looks to be the end for Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule in Zimbabwe after the military put the despotic president under house arrest. As our story says, “few other than the close associates who benefited directly from Mugabe’s rule will mourn his passing from power”. This morning our Africa correspondent, Jason Burke, explains for you how a rare tactical error by the president brought him to grief.
Mugabe, 93, was trying to install his unpopular wife, Grace Mugabe, as his successor. His removal of the vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, proved the last straw for the military, which has carried out a remarkably low-key takeover. There has been no sign of resistance to either the coup, or the arrest of a series of senior officials associated with Grace Mugabe and her G40 faction.
Mugabe is assumed to be still in military custody and speculation has turned to how he will be replaced. Some predict he will resign this week and Mnangagwa will take charge, possibly with opposition leaders installed as vice-president and prime minister. But there are warnings that the former spy chief Mnangagwa is “every bit as iron-fisted” as the man he might replace. Nelson Chamisa, the deputy head of the opposition MDC party, has urged respect for “peace, constitutionalism, democratisation, the rule of law and the sanctity of human life” as the transition takes place.
Mugabe’s misrule has left Zimbabwe short of cash and struggling to pay for imports owing to a shortage of dollars. State employees, including some soldiers and police, have gone for months without payment of their salaries, deepening discontent with the government.
