Jason Burke - Tactical error leaves weakened Mugabe facing end of an era

By Dilip -
The final unravelling of the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe began with an uncharac-teristic tactical error. To clear the way to power for his wife, Grace, and her increasingly influential faction, the 93-year-old autocrat sought a decisive confrontation with the only man in the former British colony who had the power to mount a successful challenge to his authority – and he lost.

Emerson Mnangagwa, the former vice-president whose cunning, longevity and toughness earned him the nickname “the Crocodile”, was unceremoniously stripped of his office by Mugabe nine days ago.
The manner of the sacking should have given the oldest ruler in the world and the 53-year-old first lady pause. It did not, and now Mugabe is confined to his official residence in the plush suburb of Borrowdale. The whereabouts of Grace Mugabe are unknown.

Mugabe had intended to fire Mnangagwa face to face in his office, but the former intelligence chief refused to travel the short distance across the Zimbabwean capital for the interview. The president tried again, this time telling Mnangagwa – an aide and collaborator since the two men fought together in the liberation wars of the 1970s – to come to State House, the president’s official residence. Once again, there was no response.

This second refusal was taken as evidence of weakness, one official in the ruling Zanu-PF said, and hours later a government spokesman told a press conference in Harare that Mnangagwa had been stripped of office for “disloyalty, disrespect, deceit and being unreliable”. Mnangagwa, tipped to succeed the ailing Mugabe as recently as August, fled to neighbouring Mozambique... read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/16/tactical-error-leaves-weakened-mugabe-facing-end-of-an-era


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