Harare (November 22, 2017): Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe resigned on Tuesday after 37 years of autocratic rule, finally succumbing to the pressure of a military takeover and the humiliation of impeachment.
His successor will be former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, according to Simon Khaya Moyo, the spokesman for Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. Mnangagwa should be sworn in by Thursday, the spokesman said.
The resignation announcement came minutes into a joint session of the Zimbabwean Parliament in Harare, convened to prise the 93-year-old from power.
As the speaker read out a letter from Mugabe, lawmakers broke out in thunderous applause. The impeachment proceedings were immediately suspended.
In the streets outside, crowds erupted in rapturous celebrations, dancing and cheering in joy, raising their fists and waving Zimbabwean flags.
It was the culmination of an extraordinary week in the history of Zimbabwe that began when the country’s military leaders staged an unprecedented intervention to prevent the ascent to power of Mugabe’s 52-year-old wife, Grace.
The ousted President insisted his resignation was voluntary. “I have resigned to allow smooth transfer of power,” he wrote. “Kindly give public notice of my decision as soon as possible.”
Mnangagwa, whose sacking by Mugabe two weeks ago triggered the crisis, was the ZANU-PF’s pick to succeed Mugabe, Moyo said, and he will be sworn in within 48 hours of the Parliament speaker announcing Mugabe’s resignation.
Theresa May, the Prime Minister of Britain, from which Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, said Mugabe’s resignation provided the country “with an opportunity to forge a new path free of the oppression that characterized his rule.”
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