MUGABE TO FACE IMPEACHMENT

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe came under increasing pressure to quit after his ruling party said Monday it was prepared to force the defiant leader from power by moving to impeach him.

In a televised address late Sunday, the 93-year-old president flouted expectations he would step down after a military takeover, pitching the country into a second week of political crisis.
Lawmakers from his ruling ZANU-PF party said that they would take the first steps on Tuesday necessary to push Mugabe from office after the veteran leader ignored their ultimatum he resign by 1000 GMT Monday.

“We want to get rid of this animal called Mugabe, he must go. We have the numbers, the opposition is also going to support us,” said ZANU-PF MP Vongai Mupereri.

“We have got a clear position, we are going to impeach — the man has to go,” said another government MP, MacKenzie Ncube, speaking to AFP after a key meeting of ruling party lawmakers.

Once a simple majority of parliamentarians vote for impeachment, an investigative committee is formed by lawmakers, who report back to both houses of parliament. Each house must then vote by a two-thirds majority for him to be stripped of office.

Mugabe’s weekend speech capped an extraordinary weekend that saw Zimbabweans celebrate while also venting their anger in ways that would have been brutally repressed just a week ago.

But their joy quickly turned to despair as Mugabe brushed aside the turmoil, blithely declaring on Sunday he would chair a top-level meeting of the party that had just disavowed him.

Hundreds of noisy demonstrators gathered at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare on Monday to call for Mugabe to stand down.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, called Mugabe’s speech a “complete reversal of the people’s expectations”.

“The so-called negotiation with the army did not produce the dignified exit that the nation was expecting.”