MuggsyMugabe
Nonagenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case...and expressed confidence that he could be voted out within two days, while the world's oldest head of state ignored the party's midday deadline to resign and instead summoned ministers to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.
The ruling Zanu-PF party's deputy secretary for legal affairs Paul Mangwana said politicians would move a motion for impeachment on Tuesday and set up a parliamentary committee, and on Wednesday the committee would report back to all politicians and "we vote him out."
The main charge against the 93-year-old Mugabe is "allowing his wife to usurp government powers" and that "he is too old and cannot even walk without help," Mangwana told news hounds.
He said the ruling party needs the backing of the MDC opposition group to have enough votes in Parliament but "we have talked to them and they are supporting us."
Zim-bob-weans were stunned by Mugabe's defiance during a national address on Sunday night in which the increasingly isolated president, put under military house arrest last week, had been expected to step down. Mugabe did acknowledge "a whole range of concerns" about the chaotic state of the government and the economy, which has collapsed since he took power after independence from white minority rule in 1980.
A notice by Mugabe's chief secretary announced on Tuesday morning's Cabinet meeting at State House and said all ministers "should attend." However,
it's easy to be generous with someone else's money...
a tweet by one minister, Jonathan Moyo, indicated that several had left the country.
The military appears to favor a voluntary resignation for Mugabe, one of Africa's last remaining liberation leaders, to maintain a veneer of legality in the political transition and avoid accusations of a coup. Mugabe, in turn, is likely using whatever leverage he has left to try to preserve his legacy or even protect himself and his family from possible prosecution.
Amid the political confusion, the government on Monday urged Cabinet ministers to pursue business as usual. Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, Bart was wondering if fisticuffs would be appropriate at this point...
opposition activists and the influential liberation war veterans association announced more demonstrations to pressure Mugabe to go.
"Your time is up," veterans association leader Chris Mutsvangwa said at a presser. He suggested that the military was still beholden to Mugabe and compelled to protect him because he is officially their "commander in chief."
The war veterans' association will go to court to argue that Mugabe is "derelict of his executive duty," Mutsvangwa said.
Mugabe was stripped of his party leadership on Sunday by the ruling party's Central Committee but said in his speech he would preside over a party congress next month.
That congress is expected to ratify his firing as party chief, the expulsion of the unpopular first lady and the naming of Mugabe's recently fired deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to succeed him.