Reuters, Johannesburg :
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was sacked as president illegally and the international community must help remove the “military government” that has taken power or risk the country descending into chaos, an exiled Mugabe loyalist said on Friday.
People watch as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe addresses the nation on television, at a bar in Harare, Zimbabwe, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
Mugabe, 93, stood down last November, a week after the army and his former political allies turned against him, ending nearly four decades of rule marred by allegations of corruption, human rights abuses and economic negligence.
His former vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, whose sacking prompted the military takeover that forced Mugabe out, was sworn
in as president and the general who led the de facto coup, Constantino Chiwenga, was installed as his deputy.
Mugabe’s resignation came in the form of a written statement and he has not spoken since.
“The president was alleged to have resigned. There is no evidence,” Jonathan Moyo, a cabinet minister under Mugabe, told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location, in one of the first detailed accounts from a Mugabe supporter since the coup.
“It is completely unsustainable for anyone to say Mugabe resigned voluntarily when we know the army took over all institutions of the state and confined him to his residence. You have to be applying a Banana Republic model to say he resigned.”
Moyo was the fiercely combative mouthpiece for a faction in the ruling ZANU-PF party that opposed Mnangagwa and backed Mugabe’s 52-year old wife, Grace, to succeed him.
Mugabe’s departure brought tens of thousands of jubilant Zimbabweans onto the streets and was widely cheered by leaders in Africa and the West.
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was sacked as president illegally and the international community must help remove the “military government” that has taken power or risk the country descending into chaos, an exiled Mugabe loyalist said on Friday.
People watch as Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe addresses the nation on television, at a bar in Harare, Zimbabwe, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
Mugabe, 93, stood down last November, a week after the army and his former political allies turned against him, ending nearly four decades of rule marred by allegations of corruption, human rights abuses and economic negligence.
His former vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, whose sacking prompted the military takeover that forced Mugabe out, was sworn
in as president and the general who led the de facto coup, Constantino Chiwenga, was installed as his deputy.
Mugabe’s resignation came in the form of a written statement and he has not spoken since.
“The president was alleged to have resigned. There is no evidence,” Jonathan Moyo, a cabinet minister under Mugabe, told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location, in one of the first detailed accounts from a Mugabe supporter since the coup.
“It is completely unsustainable for anyone to say Mugabe resigned voluntarily when we know the army took over all institutions of the state and confined him to his residence. You have to be applying a Banana Republic model to say he resigned.”
Moyo was the fiercely combative mouthpiece for a faction in the ruling ZANU-PF party that opposed Mnangagwa and backed Mugabe’s 52-year old wife, Grace, to succeed him.
Mugabe’s departure brought tens of thousands of jubilant Zimbabweans onto the streets and was widely cheered by leaders in Africa and the West.
