Robert Mugabe under SEIGE: Gunfire breaks out near President's Zimbabwe mansion
- by Thibaud Popelin
- in Monde
- — Nov 15, 2017
"Today begins a fresh new era and comrade Mnangagwa will help us achieve a better Zimbabwe".
Mnangagwa's dismissal left Mugabe's wife Grace, 52, in prime position to succeed her husband as the next president - a succession strongly opposed by senior ranks in the military.
CODE President Elton Mangoma, said the coup which has been staged against President Robert Mugabe's government by the Zimbabwe National Army should translate into an early free and fair election.
A trip to Beijing last week by Zimbabwe's military chief was a "normal military exchange", China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, after the military in the southern African nation seized power.
Human rights groups have accused him of blatant abuses and overseeing a wave of anti-white discrimination and state corruption while the economy tanked.
"It is not a military takeover of government", said one general reading a statement.
"We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes".
The statement read out by Maj Gen Sibusiso Moyo came hours after soldiers overran the headquarters of ZBC. Local residents said instead of the usual 11 p.m. newscast, music videos were played instead.
In a message posted online Tuesday night, the embassy also instructed US government personnel in Zimbabwe to remain in their residences and work from home on Wednesday.
A U.S. embassy spokesman in Zimbabwe said the embassy would be minimally staffed and closed to the public on Wednesday.
As the situation deteriorated overnight, prolonged gunfire was heard near Mugabe's private residence. "They will want to avoid that", Magaisa said. The military will return Zimbabwe to "genuine democracy" and make the country a "modern model nation", said Chris Mutsvangwa, chairman of the war veterans' association, told The Associated Press in Johannesburg. The veteran of the country's 1970s liberation war was popular with the military and had been seen as a likely successor to Mugabe.
Witnesses Tuesday reported tanks and armed personnel carriers moving on roads outside the capital.
Tensions have been building in Zimbabwe since Emmerson Mnangagwa, a powerful figure in the ruling Zanu-PF party, fled to South Africa last week.
Events have unfolded after the head of the defence forces, General Constantino Chiwenga, warned the army would take "drastic action" if factions in the ruling Zanu-PF did not stop purges against party members with military backgrounds.
The ZANU PF Twitter account retweeted a message from the party's youth league that said: "The army is simply effecting a National Democratic Project and it's doing so with peaceful aplomb".
Tensions were raised further on Tuesday when armoured vehicles were seen taking up positions on roads outside Harare, although their objective was unclear.
