Robert Mugabe resigns as president of Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe resigns as president of Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe has resigned as president of Zimbabwe with immediate effect after 37 years in power, the speaker of the country’s parliament has said.

The announcement came during a hearing to impeach Mugabe, and launches the nation into a new era as uncertain as it is hopeful.

The move caps an astonishing eight-day crisis that started when the military took over last week in order to block the rise to power of Mugabe’s wife and her faction within the ruling Zanu-PF party, and then developed into a popular revolt against the 93-year-old autocrat.

A letter submitted to parliament by Mugabe said his decision to resign was voluntary. 

Wild jubilation broke out among MPs when the speaker, Jacob Mudenda, made the announcement, and cheers and celebrations spread through the streets of Harare.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as the President of Zimbabwe between 1987 and 2017.[1] He previously led Zimbabwe as Prime Minister from 1980 to 1987. He chaired the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) group from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017.

Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist although after the 1990s self-identified only as a socialist; his policies have been described as Mugabeism.