Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Mugabe in Limbo as Impeachment Looms
The unthinkable happened in Zimbabwe over the week-end. After 37 years in power, Robert Mugabe lost the backing of his Zanu-PF party, and the party sacked him as leader. He was given 24 hours to resign as the Zimbawean president. The deadline passed with Mr. Mugabe rejecting the demand. Zanu-PF is now beginning impeachment proceedings against him.
He claims he will preside over the Zanu-PF congress in December. His days are over, but it may take bloodshed to convince him. Reuters is reporting that the draft impeachment motion accuses the president of being “a source of instability” and of being responsible for an “unprecedented economic tailspin.” It further says that he handed over his constitutional mandate to his wife Grace. This last point is significant because it effectively impeaches her politically. She and her G40 faction of leaders fell out with the Lacoste faction, so named because its leader Emmerson Mnangagwa is known as the “Crocodile” which is also the logo of the clothier Lacoste. The Lacoste faction are former liberation fighters getting on in years, while the G40 tend to be the middle-aged Zanu-PF crowd.
Last week, President Mugabe fired Mr. Mnangagwa from the vice-presidency, and that’s when the army moved into the streets. Mr. Mnangagwa is their preferred replacement, and Zanu-PF fell into line yesterday. When Mr. Mugabe was relieved of his job, the position fell to r. Mnangagwa In theory, impeachment and removal of a Zimbabwean President is a rather drawn out affair. The Senate and the National Assembly hold a joint session to consider the issue. The matter is referred to a nine-member committee, and then the resolution goes back to the joint session where a two-thirds majority is needed for the measure to succeed. In practice, this process can take a day given the massive majorities Zanu-PF holds in the legislature.
Mr Mugabe’s departure via constitutional means may not, of course, be acceptable to the G40 crowd. Whether they have the weaponry and the numbers to keep him in power or move Mrs. Mugabe into office is uncertain. This journal believes the army and Mr. Mnangagwa will prevail, but if G40 believes there is no choice but to try, this could all still end in violence.
The Fall of Mugabe has long been a wish here. Whatever his role in the liberation of Africa from its colonialist past, he managed to get Zimbabwean inflation to rise so high and so fast that it couldn’t be measured. He turned a food exporter into a food importer, and he drove 3 million Zimbabweans (more than 15% of the population) into economic exile. Simply put, he governed very badly.
At the same time, Mr. Mnangagwa is no prize either. CNN says, “Fear of Mnangagwa stems from his position as Mugabe’s enforcer and head of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), or secret police, and his alleged role in the 1983-84 massacres of the Ndebele ethnic group in Matabeleland, a region in Zimbabwe’s southwest that was a center of political opposition to Mugabe’s regime. “The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), an international non-partisan organization, estimate at least 20,000 civilians were killed by the CIO and the armed forces.”
The army has promised democratic rule, having installed Mr. Mnangagwa at bayonet point. Elections may well be held, but the conclusion is foregone. Zanu-PF might invite opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to become vice-president in an attempt to make things look better, but in the end, the head of the organs of oppression is now well on his way to being head of state and of government.
© Copyright 2017 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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