Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe was on Sunday facing the imminent end of his
37-year rule as the once-loyal Zanu-PF party sacked him as its leader
and army generals piled pressure on him to resign.
President
Mugabe's grip on power was broken last week when the military took
over, angered at his wife Grace's emergence as the leading candidate to
succeed the 93-year-old president.
On Saturday, tens of
thousands of overjoyed demonstrators flooded the streets of Zimbabwe in
peaceful celebrations marking the apparent end of his long and
authoritarian rule.
Outside a Zanu-PF meeting in
Harare, a delegate told AFP that President Mugabe had been ousted as
party chief and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was previously Grace
Mugabe's chief rival to succeed the ageing president.
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"A
resolution has been adopted to recall the president and elevate
Mnangagwa as the party president," said the delegate, who declined to be
named.
President Mugabe — the world's oldest head of
state — remains national president for the time being but now faces
overwhelming opposition from the generals, much of the Zimbabwean public
and from his own party.
"(Mugabe's) wife and close
associates have taken advantage of his frail condition to usurp power
and loot state resources," party official Obert Mpofu told the Zanu-PF
meeting.
Army chiefs who led the takeover were due to hold further talks with the president later Sunday. (AFP)
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