SUDDENLY the dictator was no more. As Zimbabwe’s parliament began impeachment proceedings against Robert Mugabe,who had stubbornly refused to step down despite a country rising against him, a hush came over the joint session of senators and MPs. The speaker rose, and in his hand a letter. Mr Mugabe had resigned. The room roared. “We gain set ourselves free,” said one dancing man, a member of the central committee of Zanu-PF, and the ruling party. “Mugabe is down. It is our time now.”It was a remarkable fall for a man who bragged he would retain on ruling “until God says come” and whose wife,Grace, until recently a powerful figure in Zanu-PF, and had said that whether should he die before an election scheduled for next year,the party would “field him as a corpse”.
As dusk fell, Harare rang with hooting car horns and the shouts and songs of an overjoyed people. Soldiers and tanks stationed throughout the city since taking control a week ago kept guard calmly. Few had expected Mr Mugabe to stand down willingly after 37 years in...
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Source: economist.com