Source: Thousands for Mugabe ‘final push’ – NewsDay Zimbabwe November 18, 2017
WAR veterans have called on cornered President Robert Mugabe to step down today or face the wrath of Zimbabweans in a planned final push rally to oust the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
Addressing a Press conference in Harare yesterday, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) chairman Christopher Mutsvangwa said it was time for the 93-year-old to step down voluntarily or be forced out of power by the masses.
“We are giving an ultimatum to Mugabe. This aura, this pretence that things are normal going to Zimbabwe Open University capping people, it’s pretence,” he said.
“We won’t accept it, period. He has to make a decision along the diplomacy which is being given by Sadc to promptly leave office. That’s all we want.”
Mutsvangwa, who was fired from Mugabe’s Cabinet in March last year, said if his former boss did not resign under the terms of the military generals, the people would push him out today.
“From a very practical angle, he makes a decision today to leave, it’s upon him to make it and his wife [First Lady Grace] under the terms which he should negotiate with the generals,” he said.
“Tomorrow (today) is different. We have a rally which we had long planned starting at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield.
Tomorrow, he is going to see who has the people. I hope by that time, he would have made his decision to accept the terms of quickly leaving the country. If he doesn’t, we will settle the scores tomorrow.”
Mutsvangwa said only the people can hound Mugabe out of power without any censure from the Sadc or African Union.
“There is no constituency which is more sovereign than the people of Zimbabwe and it’s their decision that Sadc will have to respect,” he said.
Mutsvangwa called upon the Sadc Troika meeting in Botswana to expel Foreign minister Walter Mzembi from its meetings, saying he had no mandate to represent the people of Zimbabwe.
“There is a Sadc Troika meeting going on. We have no problem with Sadc, but there is a certain Zimbabwean who is there who should not be there. His name is Mzembi positioning himself as a Foreign Affairs minister. Mzembi, others of your ilk are in jail now, under the army, that’s Jonathan (Moyo), (Saviour) Kasukuwere and (Ignatius) Chombo. Mzembi, you belong to the group. Rather than try to talk on behalf of Zimbabweans in Botswana, come and talk to us about yourself,” Mutsvangwa said.
COMMENTS