Zimbabwe’s governing Zanu-PF party on Sunday sacked embattled President Robert Mugabe and reinstated Emmerson Mnangagwa as party vice-president.
Zanu-PF also resolved to elect Mnangagwa – who was recently fired as vice president by Mugabe – as the party’s new leader.
Following an extraordinary session of the Zanu-PF central committee on Sunday at the party’s headquarters in the capital Harare, acting chairman Obert Mpofu started by saying “this is a new era, not only for the party but for the country as well”, before saying the whole of Zimbabwe was “ecstatic”.
“Well done defence forces,” Mpofu said. “These are revolutionary events. The people spoke yesterday [Saturday], judging by the massive [protest] turnout.”
Mpofu said Mugabe had done a lot of great things for Zimbabwe, but was “taken advantage of by his wife Grace and close associates when he got old”.
Zanu-PF also resolved to expel Grace and ban her for life from the party’s politics. Also expelled were Jonathan Moyo, national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, Mugabe nephew Patrick Zhuwao, Zanu-PF secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo, as well as many others aligned to the G40 faction – supporting Grace to succeed her husband – which has been fighting against Mnangagwa’s possible ascension to power.
– African News Agency (ANA),
