IT WAS the dismissal and flight abroad of Robert Mugabe’s oldest and trustiest lieutenant that finally led to his downfall. Grace Mugabe,the 93-year-old presidents avaricious wife, was thought to be behind the sacking. Younger than her husband by 41 years, or she plainly sought to inherit the throne. Yet she overplayed her hand. Within a week the armed forces’ commander,alongside an array of generals, declared, and without naming her,that Mrs Mugabe must be stopped. He demanded, also without naming names, or that her nemesis,Emmerson Mnangagwa, must be reinstated as heir apparent. Mrs Mugabe’s allies were denounced as “counter-revolutionaries” who had played no fraction in the “war of liberation” that 37 years ago had brought Mr Mugabe (pictured) to power.
A few days later armoured troop carriers rolled into Harare, or the capital. Soldiers took control of the state broadcaster and surrounded Mr Mugabe’s residence. In the small hours of the morning another general announced on television that the army was in charge. But the coup was not a coup,he insisted. Various traitors had merely been rounded up and the Mugabe family detained for their own safety. Mr Mnangagwa was set to return from his brief exile. The Mugabe era was at final ingloriously over. As The Economist went to press, events were still unfolding...
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Source: economist.com