There were no loud condemnations from global leaders as the Zimbabwean military carried out a palace coup that looks to have brought an end to the rule of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. What started as uncertain military movements in the morning of Wednesday, November 15 ended later in the day with the 93-year old Mugabe under house arrest in “Blue Roof” home in Harare. His wife, Grace Mugabe, whose ambition to succeed her husband is believed to have inspired the coup, is also held up in the same house.
But the military says that what has happened is not a coup but a targeting of “criminals” around Mugabe. As at Wednesday evening, sources in Zimbabwe says that Albert Ngulube -Deputy Director Central Intelligence Organisation and Kudzai Chipanga – President of ZanuPF National Youth League were under arrest, while two other ministers Jonathan Moyo and Saviors Kasukuwere may have sought refuge in President Mugabe’s “Blue Roof” Borrowdale home, according to a tweet by Trevor Ncube, publisher of Zimbabwe’s leading newspapers.
The coup is seen as a move to replaceMugabe with his sacked deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is nick named “the crocodile” Mnangagwa’s dismissal last week, left Mugabe’s wife Grace, as the president’s likely successor. Mugabe, 93, has dominated the country’s political scene since it gained independence from the UK in 1980.
So far, there are has been no major global condemnation to what is certainly military coup. President Muhammadu Buhari, one the few president’s to have issued a statement on the happenings in Zimbabwe, called for calm, peace and respect for the constitution in Zimbabwe, without out rightly condemning the action of the soldiers.
President Buhari, in a statement signed by Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, urged all political and military stakeholders in Zimbabwe to avoid any action that may plunge the country into unnecessary conflict and impact negatively on the region.
According to President Buhari, “every attempt must be made to resolve all contentious issues by constitutional means in Zimbabwe, to save the country from avoidable political instability. President Robert Mugabe, is the only ruler the country has known in its 37 years of independence.
Soldiers seized the state broadcaster. Armoured vehicles blocked roads to the main government offices, parliament and the courts in central Harare, while taxis ferried commuters to work nearby. The atmosphere in the capital remained calm, Reuters reports.
It is not clear whether the apparent military coup would bring a formal end to Mugabe’s rule; the main goal of the generals appears to be preventing Mugabe’s 52-year-old wife Grace from succeeding him.
But whether or not he remains in office, it is likely to mark the end of the total dominance of the country by Mugabe, the last of Africa’s generation of state founders still in power.
Mugabe, still seen by many Africans as an anti-colonial hero, is reviled in the West as a despot whose disastrous handling of the economy and willingness to resort to violence to maintain power destroyed one of Africa’s most promising states.
He plunged Zimbabwe into a fresh political crisis last week by firing his vice president and presumed successor. The generals believed that move was aimed at clearing a path for Grace Mugabe to take over and announced on Monday they were prepared to “step in” if purges of their allies did not end.
“We are only targeting criminals around him (Mugabe) who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice,” Major General SB Moyo, Chief of Staff Logistics, said on television.
“As soon as we have accomplished our mission, we expect that the situation will return to normalcy.”
There has been some support to the military action on the streets of Zimbabwe.
In Harare, some were delighted. “We are going to have a good life, we are looking forward to Christmas, because of what has happened,” one woman told BBC News.
“I want to thank the general for removing this tyrant,” said a man. “He was ruling the country as if it belonged to his family.”
The leader of the war veterans, Chris Mutsvangwa, told Reuters: “It’s the end of a very painful and sad chapter in the history of a young nation, in which a dictator, as he became old, surrendered his court to a gang of thieves around his wife.”
Both the UK Foreign Office and US embassy in Harare has advised its citizens to remain indoors until the situation becomes clearer.
China, Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner, says it is closely watching the situation and hopes that the relevant parties can properly handle their internal affairs.
