Zimbabwe's ruling party to hold rally as anti-Mugabe tide rises

HARARE: President Robert Mugabe’s own ruling ZANU-PF party wants him to step down and plans to hold a rally in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare on Saturday to make the point.

Mugabe, at Zimbabwe’s helm since independence from Britain in 1980, faces the starkest challenge ever to his rule after the army seized power on Wednesday, saying it was targeting “criminals” around the nonagenarian leader.

ZANU-PF called on Friday for Mugabe to resign, the main state newspaper The Herald reported, a clear sign that the aging leader’s authority has collapsed after the army takeover.

The newspaper said that ZANU-PF branches in all 10 provinces had met and had also called for Mugabe’s wife Grace, whose ambitions to succeed her husband triggered the political crisis, to resign from the party.

A senior member of ZANU-PF earlier told Reuters the party wanted their long-time president gone.

“If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on Sunday,” the source said. “When that is done, it’s impeachment on Tuesday.”