Zimbabwean army, ruling party decide Mugabe’s fate today

BAYO AKINLOYE  with agency report

President Robert Mugabe will meet with the top officers of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces on Sunday (today).

This was disclosed by the Chairman of the negotiating team, Fidelis Mukonori, according to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

Mukonori said this would be the second time that Mugabe and the ZDF command would meet, the first meeting having taken place on Thursday.

“The negotiating team is made up of Mukonori, the Acting Director General of the CIO, Aaron Nhepera and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, George Charamba,” the state TV said.

Similarly, Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party will also meet on Sunday (today) to discuss removing him as president, a Member of Parliament and a party official told AFP.

“There’s a central committee meeting (on Sunday) to endorse the resolutions reached by the provinces,” said the MP.

The parliamentarian, who declined to be named, referred to the decision by eight of the party’s 10 regional committees on Friday to call on Mugabe to resign as president and party leader.

“Yes we are meeting (Sunday) to endorse the decisions of the nine provinces,” said the party official, who confirmed that a further region had called on Mugabe to go since Friday night’s announcement.

“We are also recalling him as the president and first secretary of the party,” said the source who also declined to be named.

The meeting comes after tens of thousands of overjoyed protesters flooded Zimbabwe’s streets on Saturday, celebrating the crumbling of Mugabe’s ruthless regime which had controlled the country for nearly 40 years.

The mass turnout came after an unprecedented week in which the military seized power and put Mugabe under house arrest in response to his sacking of Vice President Emmerson Mnangag