{"id":974,"date":"2017-11-21T16:05:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T16:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/?p=974"},"modified":"2017-11-22T08:59:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T08:59:31","slug":"zimbabwes-mugabe-resigns-ending-four-decades-of-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/?p=974","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe’s Mugabe resigns, ending four decades of rule"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MacDonald Dzirutwe<\/a><\/div>\n
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HARARE (Reuters) – Robert Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe\u2019s president on Tuesday, shortly after parliament began an impeachment process to end his nearly four decades of rule.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0The 93-year old clung on for a week after an army takeover and expulsion from his own ruling ZANU-PF party, which also told him to leave power.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Wild celebrations broke out at a joint sitting of parliament when Speaker Jacob Mudenda announced Mugabe\u2019s resignation and suspended the impeachment procedure.<\/p>\n

The origin of Mugabe\u2019s sudden downfall lies in rivalry between members of Zimbabwe\u2019s ruling elite over who will succeed him, rather than popular protests against his rule.<\/p>\n

The army seized power after Mugabe sacked ZANU-PF\u2019s favorite to succeed him, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to smooth a path to the presidency for his wife Grace, 52, known to her critics as \u201cGucci Grace\u201d for her reputed fondness for luxury shopping.<\/p>\n

Mnangagwa, a former security chief known as The Crocodile, is expected to take over as president.<\/p>\n

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Below is the resignation letter:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zimbabwe parliamentary Speaker Jacob Mudenda read out the resignation letter, which was delivered to him moments earlier, to members of parliament who were gathered to discuss an impeachment motion on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

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State House<\/p>\n

Harare<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe<\/p>\n

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21 November 2017<\/p>\n

The Honourable Jacob Mudenda<\/p>\n

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Notice of resignation as President of the Republic of Zimbabwe<\/strong><\/p>\n

In terms of the provisions of section 96 (1) of the constitution of Zimbabwe, amendment number 20, 2013.<\/p>\n

Following my verbal communication with the Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda at 13:53 hours, 21st November, 2017 intimating my intention to resign as President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, I Robert Gabriel Mugabe in terms of section 96 (1) of the constitution of Zimbabwe hereby formally tender my resignation as the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe with immediate effect.<\/p>\n

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My decision to resign is voluntary on my part and arises from my concern for the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe and my desire to ensure a smooth, peaceful and non-violent transfer of power that underpins national security, peace and stability.<\/p>\n

Kindly give public notice of my resignation as soon as possible as required by section 96 (1) of the constitution of Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

Yours faithfully,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Robert Gabriel Mugabe<\/p>\n

President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) – Robert Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe\u2019s president on Tuesday, shortly after parliament began an impeachment process to end his nearly four decades of rule. \u00a0The 93-year old clung on for a week after an army takeover and expulsion from his own ruling ZANU-PF party, which also told him to leave power. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=974"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":982,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974\/revisions\/982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsdayzambia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}