According to Zimbabwe’s parliament speaker Jacob Mudenda, 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe has resigned from his position in a written letter.
This comes on the heels of parliament’s announcement of impending impeachment proceedings, Reuters reports.
Mugabe has been in his position since 1980, having refused to step down last week — even as a strangely peaceful coup d’état effectively placed the president under house arrest. This military takeover unfurled after Mugabe attempted to further consolidate his power by sacking his likely successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in order to pave the way for his wife to succeed the dictator and serve as Zimbabwe’s next president.
As public outcry against the already-unpopular president intensified, Mugabe’s own ZANU-PF party began urging him to step down. And the greatest challenge to Mugabe’s power came over the weekend, when parliament gave the president an ultimatum: resign, or be impeached. (RELATED: Mugabe Receives Ultimatum: Resign Or Be Impeached)
Between the military’s silent takeover, Mugabe’s house arrest and ostracism from his own party, and weeks of fervent protests by citizens concerned with Mugabe’s increasingly frequent power grabs and authoritarian crackdowns, the stage was set for a coup de grace to force Mugabe’s hand. The final straw seems to have been parliaments decision to back up their threats and begin drafting impeachment proceedings.
According to Reuters, a former security chief known as “The Crocodile” is expected to take over as president.