Robert Mugabe Resigns as Zimbabwe’s President, Ending 37-Year Rule

The New York Times ^ | November 21, 2017 | Norimitsu Onishi and Jeffrey Moyo

[GuavaCheesePuff]

By Norimitsu Onishi and Jeffrey Moyo Nov. 21, 2017 HARARE, Zimbabwe — Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, resigned as president on Tuesday shortly after lawmakers began impeachment proceedings against him, according to the speaker of Parliament.

The speaker of Parliament read out a letter in which Mr. Mugabe said he was stepping down “with immediate effect” for “the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe and the need for a peaceful transfer of power.”

Parliament erupted into cheers and jubilant residents poured into the streets of Harare, the capital. It seemed to be an abrupt capitulation by Mr. Mugabe, who had refused to step down only two days earlier, when his former political party, ZANU-PF, formally expelled him.

[henkster]

The Chinese will find Zimbabwe is now a much more favorable business climate to extract resources. Not that they had a hand in this or anything....

[butlerweave]

It was resign or die cleaning a gun

[caligatrux]

I wonder if he is even still alive. They may trot out a body double for a few photo ops, but I have a feeling he is dead.

[marktwain]

With Mugabe at 93, it seems likely to be a natural occurrence.

[Red Badger]

Now, will the ‘new Boss’ be the same as ‘the old Boss’?...................

[henkster]

The Chinese are patient. It’s a matter of timing. Watch them move into Zimbabwe and start digging like gophers.

[PghBaldy]

Thank you for posting. Hope things improve for the white minority in that Mugabified dump.

[ek_hornbeck]

Unfortunately, this isn’t the good news that it ought to be. It isn’t as though Ian Smith’s Rhodesia will be restored anytime soon. Rather, Zimbabwe will get more of the same (or perhaps even worse) with Mugabe’s thuggish former ex-VP and right-hand-man Emerson Mangangwa in charge of the country. The only reason Mangangwa turned on his former leader is that Mugabe pushed him out to make room for his wife as heir to the throne.

[Dr. Sivana]

The Chinese are patient. It’s a matter of timing. Watch them move into Zimbabwe and start digging like gophers.

And it still would be an upgrade.

[ek_hornbeck]

Now, will the ‘new Boss’ be the same as ‘the old Boss’

Absolutely. Mangangwa didn't overthrow Mugabe because of disagreement with his policies or even because Mugabe was senile and incompetent. Mangagwa did this so that he rather than Mrs. Mugabe would be Zimbabwe's next President. By all account, Mangangwa is even more of a brutal thug than Mugabe.

[rktman]

💸🙀. Will this effect the $17,000,000 their foreign minister was supposed to send me? 👹

[BBQToadRibs]

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Sadly, what comes next might not be much of an improvement.

[blackdog]

Trump went on a trip around the globe and the events in his wake are not just a coincidence. People of nations long abused by corrupt leaders are listening to Americans.

[kearnyirish2]

That was my read on it as well; the party elders didn’t want their own “Winnie Mugabe” seizing power.

As for the whites, most of those that were willing to remain in Africa are already hard at work feeding neighboring countries - after those countries made generous concessions to lure them there to ply their trade.

[Blood of Tyrants]

He’ll be replaced with another dictator who will steal from the country to enrich himself.

[Leaning Right]

So a presidential slot has opened up. Go for it, Hillary! If you can’t be the first woman US president, perhaps you can be the first woman Zimbabwean president.

Then again, Hillary’s corruption might be too much for even Zimbabwe to swallow.

[ek_hornbeck]

Michelle Obama would be a much better fit for the job.

[henkster]

I agree; at least the Chinese will provide jobs for the Zimbabweans. They might even let the white farmers return so that the country can function without the Chinese directly running the show and feed itself while the people dig. It’s going to be an extractive economy, but it’s still an economy.

[chajin]

For years I have asked my Ethics students whether it was better to be Patrick Tillman or Robert Mugabe, since Tillman did everything ethically right and ended up broke and then dead, while Mugabe did everything ethically wrong and ended up very rich, with a trophy wife, and running a country for over 30 years. (In Christian classes I would add that Tillman died an atheist and Mugabe is a baptized Catholic, so at least, if Catholicism is correct, Mugabe will get to heaven after going through Purgatory.) It was a little like the Kobayashi-Maru exercise in Star Trek. I’ll have to find someone else to take Mugabe’s place now.