Harare was one big party on Tuesday night as Zimbabweans filled the streets of the capital to celebrate the end of Robert Mugabe’s 37-year reign as president.
“We are free at last, Mugabe has fallen,” screamed a young man draped in a Zimbabwe flag.
He was part of the multitudes that had no plan on sleeping Tuesday night and had been dancing since speaker of the Zimbabwe Parliament Jacob Mudenda’s impromptu adjourning of a joint sitting of the Senate and National Assembly to announce that Mugabe had resigned.
The news triggered wild celebrations in the House and on the streets, with hooters blaring, car radios at full blast and strangers are hugging and dancing each other in a spontaneous outbreak of joy.
The atmosphere in Harare was electric and one of unparalleled joy, with most Zimbabweans, believing that the end of Mugabe will bring about a new dawn
for the country, once the breadbasket of Africa.
“I don’t care who replaces him. It is impossible that anyone can do a worse job than this man,” said Munyaradzi Denhera as he joined in the celebrations.
Thirty-three-year-old father of one Musa Masango said he never thought this day would come. “I was a kid, became a man, got married and had a son but have only known one president in my whole lifetime. This is exciting new ground for me,” he said.
Emmerson Mnangagwa who has been in self-imposed exile in South Africa since being fired by Mugabe on November 6 is expected to return home
as the front-runner to replace Mugabe.
It remains to be seen how the country will navigate the rigid constitutional process to install him as president. This, however, was on Tuesday night very much a secondary thought for Zimbabweans.
“We will think about the next president tomorrow, today it’s our time to celebrate,” said Masango.
In neighbouring South Africa, home to several million Zimbabweans who have fled the oppression and economic hardship, the outpouring of joy was equally intense.
Shelton Chiyangwa, a 34-year-old who was born in Harare but moved to South Africa in 2005 and currently lives and works in Port Elizabeth, said: “I am feeling so excited, if you had to see me a few minutes ago, I was actually crying. I actually burst into tears, these were tears of joy, tears of shock and tears of excitement.
“The president I have known for all my entire life has finally decided to step down. I was born when Mugabe was in power, I grew up when Mugabe was in power and then I joined politics fighting the system that he had put into place.
“As I tuned into the TV and saw that he has resigned, I am feeling so excited. The feelings that I have right now, the joy and excitement is the same as all the Zimbabweans that are scattered across the diaspora here in South Africa and across the world. We were pushed by circumstances, we were pushed by hardships in Zimbabwe to find refuge in South Africa and other countries.”
Chiyangwa added: “People are excited, people back home are excited because we are free at last. It’s a huge stepping stone towards a new Zimbabwe that we have all been fighting and wishing for. To be honest, this means the future looks bright, after 37 years of misery, hardship and a future that was bleak. Finally, God decided to answer our prayers.”
Chiyangwa said the institutions that Mugabe put in place were more deadly than Mugabe himself and Chiyangwa called for free and fair elections for everyone so that the people of Zimbabwe could choose their desired government.
A Zimbabwean woman who has been in Cape Town for 11 years quipped: Ï am packing my bags for home tonight!”
– African News Agency (ANA)
