HARARE: President Robert Mugabe is insisting he remains Zimbabwe’s only legitimate ruler and is refusing to quit after a military coup, but pressure is mounting on the 93-year-old former guerrilla to accept offers of a graceful exit, sources said on Thursday.
A political source who spoke to senior allies holed up with Mugabe and his wife, Grace, in his lavish “Blue Roof” Harare compound said Mugabe had no plans to resign voluntarily ahead of elections scheduled for next year.
“It’s a sort of stand-off, a stalemate,” the source said. ‘‘They are insisting the president must finish his term.”
The army’s takeover signalled the collapse in less than 36 hours of the security, intelligence and patronage networks that sustained Mugabe through 37 years in power and built him into the “Grand Old Man” of African politics.
A priest mediating between Mugabe and the generals, who seized power on Wednesday in what they called a targeted operation against “criminals” in Mugabe’s entourage, has made little headway, a senior political source said.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai called for Mugabe’s departure “in the interest of the people”. Tsvangirai pointedly referred to him as “Mr Robert Mugabe”, not President.
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
