Zimbabwe’s ruling party now discussing the process to impeach President Robert Mugabe on Monday after expiring the deadline to end his nearly four decades in power by resigning.
ZANU-PF party's chief whip Lovemore Matuke said the party’s members of parliament would meet soon to start mapping out Mugabe’s impeachment.
The process to impeach the 93-year-old is relatively long-winded according to paper.
The impeachment requires a joint sitting of the Senate and National Assembly, then a nine-member committee of senators, then another joint sitting to confirm his dismissal with a two-thirds majority.
However, constitutional experts said ZANU-PF had the numbers and could push it through in as little as 24 hours.
“They can fast-track it. It can be done in a matter of a day,” said John Makamure, executive director of the Southern African Parliamentary Support Trust, an NGO that works with the parliament in Harare.
According to Reuters, Mugabe’s demise, now almost inevitable, is likely to send shockwaves across Africa.
A number of entrenched strongmen from Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni to Democratic Republic of Congo’s Joseph Kabila are facing mounting pressure to step aside.
ZANU-PF’s action follows a weekend of high drama in Harare, culminating in reports that Mugabe had agreed on Sunday to stand down -- only for him to dash the hopes of millions of his countrymen in a bizarre and rambling national address.
Flanked by the generals who sent in tanks and troops last week to seize the state broadcaster, Mugabe spoke of the need for national unity and farming reform, but made no mention of his fate, leaving the nation of 16 million people dumbstruck.
