Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is refusing to eat in
protest against his confinement, one of his close family members has
told MailOnline.
The frail 93-year-old has not accepted any food
since Saturday, the source revealed, as he continues to be held under
house arrest at his Blue Roof mansion.
Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao said on Saturday that Mr Mugabe was ‘willing to die for what is correct’.
A Zanu-PF minister confirmed to MailOnline that Mr Mugabe is also refusing to speak as part of his days-long protest.
‘The
old man has been trying a lot of various tricks since last night,’ the
minister, who asked not to be named, said. ‘Hunger strikes, making
threats and refusing to talk.’
Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party
held a special meeting on its central committee on Sunday to remove
Mugabe as its leader and kick him out, Chris Mutsvangwa, the head of the
powerful liberation war veterans said.
Also on Sunday, Mugabe is
set to discuss his expected exit with army commander Constantino
Chiwenga, who put him under the house arrest that he is protesting with a
hunger strike.
Mutsvangwa, who has led the campaign to oust
Zimbabwe’s ruler of the last 37 years, said Zanu-PF’s meeting would also
reinstate ousted vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa and remove Mugabe’s
wife, Grace, as head of the Zanu-PF Women’s League.
‘We are going
all the way,’ Mutsvangwa said as he headed into the meeting, adding
that Mugabe should just resign and leave the country. ‘He’s trying to
bargain for a dignified exit but he should just smell the coffee and gap
it.’
Zanu-PF Central Committee members stood and cheered as the
official chairing the emergency meeting announced plans to remove
Mugabe from his leadership post on Sunday.
Obert Mpofu told the
committee that they were meeting with ‘a heavy heart’ because Mugabe had
served the country and contributed ‘many memorable achievements’.
But
Mpofu said in his opening remarks that Mugabe’s wife ‘and close
associates have taken advantage of his frail condition’ to loot national
resources. The party will also discuss reinstating recently fired Vice
President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The army threatened to let a mob
lynch the dictator if he didn’t stand down, MailOnline revealed on
Saturday. Now Mugabe has responded by rejecting all food.
‘If he
dies under military custody, even by natural causes, then the army will
be held responsible by the international community,’ the family member,
who asked not to be named, said. ‘That is how the president is trying to
put pressure on the army.’
The family member also said that
Grace Mugabe was by her husband’s side at the Blue Roof mansion
yesterday, and is thought to still be there today.
It comes as
the Zanu-PF central committee met at the party HQ in central Harare to
begin the formal process for expelling Mr Mugabe from his own party.
The
meeting follows rumours that the dictator had fled the country after
hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest against his rule.
Video
footage from protests obtained exclusively by MailOnline showed angry
crowds tearing down a huge billboard of Mugabe outside the headquarters
of the ruling Zanu-PF party in central Harare.
The footage shows dramatic scenes that would have been unthinkable just a few days ago.
While
Mugabe could be removed as party leader, his title as president of
Zimbabwe would still remain. He can only be removed from his presidency
through resignation or impeachment, launched through a constitutional
process.
‘What is left is just the technical detail of how
he’s going to leave,’ former Zimbabwean finance minister Tendai Biti
told Sky News. ‘Even if Zanu-PF does remove him – if they do have the
power, which i doubt – that doesn’t amount to removing him as president
of the country.
‘There has to be formal processes – either his own resignation or an impeachment.’
The
talks with army commander Constantino Chiwenga are the second round of
negotiations on an exit with a veneer of dignity as the military tries
to avoid accusations of a coup.
Senior figures in Zanu-PF
gathered at their headquarters in the capital, Harare, on Sunday ahead
of an emergency meeting to discuss calls to expel longtime President
Robert Mugabe as party leader.
Soldiers checked vehicles at the
gate and a military vehicle parked inside the grounds as leaders
converged in the area. The military has Mugabe under house arrest after
moving in last week, angered by Mugabe’s firing of his longtime deputy.
Impeaching
the president is another step when Parliament resumes Tuesday, and
lawmakers will “definitely” put the process in motion, the main
opposition’s parliamentary chief whip told The Associated Press.
Zanu-PF
moved forward with the process of formally expelling Mr Mugabe from the
party after all ten of Zimbabwe’s provinces passed no-confidence
motions against him on Friday.
Innocent Gonese with the MDC-T party said they had been in discussions with the ruling ZANU-PF party to act jointly.
Gonese
said of the talks: ‘If Mugabe is not gone by Tuesday, then as sure as
the sun rises from the east, impeachment process will kick in.’
The MDC-T has unsuccessfully tried to impeach Mugabe in the past, but now the ruling party has turned against him.
The
youth league of Zanu-PF called for Mugabe to resign and take a rest as
an ‘elder statesman’, while his wife, Grace, should be expelled from the
party ‘forever.’
Youth league leader Yeukai Simbanegavi praises
the military for moving against what she describes as a group of
‘criminals’ led by Grace Mugabe.
‘It is unfortunate that the
president allowed her to usurp executive authority from him, thereby
destroying both the party and the government,’ Simbanegavi said at
ruling party headquarters on Sunday.
She said the youth
league also wants the reinstatement of Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former vice
president whose firing by Mugabe followed harsh criticism by Zimbabwe’s
first lady.
The army has also brought intense pressure to bear
upon the 93-year-old, threatening to stand aside and allow him to be
lynched if he does not stand down soon, a senior politician told
MailOnline.
Mutsvangwa that that he is concerned that the
military could end up opening fire to protect Mugabe from protesters. He
says there will be more demonstrations like the massive one Saturday if
Mugabe’s negotiations with the military on his departure from power
don’t end soon.
culled from Daily Mail