PRESIDENT OF ZIMBABWE, Robert Mugabe, has resigned from his position, the speaker of the country’s parliament says.
The news comes in the wake of a debate in the country’s parliament regarding the impeachment of the 93-year-old ruler.
A letter from Mugabe to parliament was read out announcing his resignation with immediate effect.
“I Robert Gabriel Mugabe in terms of section 96 of the constitution of Zimbabwe hereby formally tender my resignation… with immediate effect,” said speaker Jacob Mudenda, reading the letter.
The bombshell news was delivered to a special joint session of parliament.
The announcement was greeted with jubilant scenes in the African country’s capital Harare, with car horns and wild cheers resounding around the city streets.
Lawmakers had convened to debate a motion to impeach Mugabe, who has dominated every aspect of Zimbabwean public life since independence in 1980.
Mugabe’s resignation caps an unprecedented week in which the military seized control, tens of thousands of Zimbabwean citizens took to the streets to demand the president go, and 93-year-old Mugabe wrestled to remain in power.
Mugabe had ruled Zimbabwe almost unopposed since the country won independence from Britain.
But his efforts to position his wife Grace as his successor triggered fury in the military that had underpinned his regime.
With © – AFP, 2017
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