Zimbabwe’s influential war veterans association has said the military should step back and let the people, and politics, remove long-time president Robert Mugabe from power.
Chris Mutsvangwa said more protests were planned as Mr Mugabe faced a midday deadline set by the ruling party to resign or face impeachment proceedings.
Zimbabweans were astonished that Mr Mugabe, flanked by the military, in a national address on Sunday night, did not announce his resignation.
“Your time is up,” Mr Mutsvangwa said, and he suggested that the military, even though it put Mr Mugabe under house arrest days ago, was still beholden to him and compelled to protect him because he was officially their “commander in chief”.
He also said the war veterans association was going to court to argue that Mr Mugabe was “derelict of his executive duty”.
Zimbabweans were increasingly fearful about the fate of their country after Mr Mugabe’s address.
“Arrogant Mugabe disregards Zanu-PF,” a newspaper headline said, a reference to the ruling party.
Some ruling party members said an impeachment process probably would not lead to Mr Mugabe’s immediate resignation and could take days to complete.
Zimbabweans watch President Robert Mugabe delivering his speech (Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP)
Mr Mugabe has been stripped of his party leadership but said in Sunday night’s speech he would preside over a party congress next month.
Some people in the capital, Harare, are now more cautious about talking to reporters in contrasts with the jubilation and open condemnation of Mr Mugabe over the weekend.
Mr Mugabe defied calls to quit in Sunday night’s speech.
The 93-year-old president acknowledged what he said were “a whole range of concerns” of Zimbabweans about the chaotic state of the government and the economy, but he stopped short of what many were hoping for, a statement that he was stepping down.
The once-formidable Mr Mugabe is now a virtually powerless figure, making his continued incumbency all the more unusual and extending Zimbabwe’s political limbo.
He is largely confined to his private home by the military. Huge crowds poured into the streets of Harare, the capital, on Saturday to demand that he leave office.
Zimbabweans sing and pray at a Christian peace and prayer rally in Harare (Ben Curtis/AP)
Yet the president sought to project authority in his speech, which he delivered after shaking hands with security force commanders, one of whom leaned over a couple of times to help Mr Mugabe find his place on the page he was reading.
The Central Committee of the ruling Zanu-PF party voted to dismiss Mr Mugabe as party leader at a meeting earlier Sunday.
Mr Mugabe has discussed his possible resignation on two occasions with military commanders after they effectively took over the country on Tuesday.
The commanders were troubled by his firing of his longtime deputy and the positioning of unpopular first lady Grace Mugabe to succeed him.
“I, as the president of Zimbabwe, as their commander in chief, do acknowledge the issues they have drawn my attention to, and do believe that these were raised in the spirit of honesty and out of deep and patriotic concern for the stability of our nation and for the welfare of our people,” Mr Mugabe said.
The deputy whom Mr Mugabe fired, former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, is positioned to become Zimbabwe’s next leader after the party committee made him its nominee to take over from Mr Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from white minority rule in 1980.
The Central Committee meeting replaced Mr Mugabe as party chief with Mr Mnangagwa and recalled the first lady as head of the women’s league, in decisions set to be ratified at the party congress next month.
The military appears to favour a voluntary resignation to maintain a veneer of legality in the political transition.
Mr Mugabe, in turn, is likely using whatever leverage he has left to try to preserve his legacy or even protect himself and his family from possible prosecution.
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