Former allies urge Mugabe to resign

By Tatenda Dewa |Harare Bureau|

Two former key allies of President Robert Mugabe, Simba Makoni and Joice Mujuru, have called on the beleaguered president to resign immediately.

Makoni was once touted as Mugabe’s heir apparent but now leads the opposition Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MKD) party after breaking away on the eve of the 2008 elections citing frustration with his former boss’s continued hold on power.

Mujuru was Mugabe’s deputy from 2004 to late 2014 when he kicked her out, accusing her of plotting to take over from him.

Calls on Mugabe ,92, to step down are growing, with his former power base, veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war that brought independence in 1980 on Thursday describing him as too old and breaking ranks with him.

The war veterans, for a long time campaign foot soldiers for Mugabe, said they would no longer be supporting him as he was dictator.

Addressing some 6,000 strong rally in Marondera on Saturday, Mujuru urged Mugabe to go now “or else”.

She described him as “evil” and seems to be getting bolder in her criticism of the man she called “father” even when he had expelled her from the ruling Zanu and called her a witch.

In a statement on Friday, Makoni,  a former Finance minister and blue-eyed boy of the president, congratulated the war veterans for breaking away from Mugabe.

He said the veterans’ new position against Mugabe confirmed his public attack of the long ruling leader as undemocratic and selfish.

“Today (Friday) we join hands with the war veterans and all democratic forces in Zimbabwe calling for change that Mugabe must resign immediately as he has failed the people of Zimbabwe.

“Mugabe belongs to the past and is history. He has nothing to offer to the people of Zimbabwe and, as a result, he must resign immediately,” said Makoni.

Mugabe intends to stand again as the Zanu PF presidential candidate in 2018, at 94, but there is growing impatience with him for failing to arrest a long drawn economic crisis.

War veterans are publicly tugging for Emmerson Mnangagwa, his co-vice president, to take over from the aged leader, with the reported backing of key security sector figures who are said to be funding the ex-combatants. Nehanda Radio