Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Sunday defied his own ZANU-PF party and hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding his resignation by pledging in a television address to preside over the party's next congress in December.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe refused to resign on Sunday.
The 93-year-old defied calls to quit from members of his own political party and hundreds of thousands of protesters.
The ZANU-PF party fired him as its leader after Zimbabwe's army staged an apparent takeover of the government last week.
Mugabe, who has lead Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, gave a televised address Sunday acknowledging the opposition, but made no mention of his stepping down.
ZIMBABWEAN PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE, SAYING: "I as the President of Zimbabwe and 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 patriotic concern for the stability of our nation."
He pledged to preside over the ZANU-PF congress scheduled for next month.
The move plunging the nation into further uncertainty.
UNIDENTIFIED HARARE RESIDENT, SAYING: "We were expecting to hear the president say, 'I've heard your concerns yesterday, and I'm ready to step down.' This wasn't what we're expecting, to hear a long speech without any results for us. The results were simple. 'I am stepping down. I am handing over the country to someone else.'"
One of the leaders of the nation's war veterans told Reuters Mugabe will now face impeachment, warning that people would take to the streets of the capital, Harare.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told Reuters he was 'baffled' by Mugabe's address.
Tsvangirai added, 'He's playing a game. He has let the whole nation down.'
