Mugabe to meet ZDF command today

President Robert Mugabe will meet the command team of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces today, a day after Zimbabweans from all walks of life massively demonstrated that he should step down.

The chair of the mediation team Father Fidelis Mukonori of the Roman Catholic Church said this will be the second meeting between Mugabe and the ZDF team to find a way of easing Mugabe out constitutionally.

The military took over the running of the country on Wednesday to prevent criminals and counter-revolutionaries from taking over the county.

They insisted that this was not a coup and still insist that Mugabe is their commander-in-chief.

The impasse has sparked a lot of speculation that Mugabe is refusing to step down because, he argues, he wants to complete his term of office which ends in August.

The military cannot force him out as this would be a coup which is not acceptable to the international community as well as the African Union and the Southern African Development Community, though some leaders like Ian Khama of Botswana have urged Mugabe to step down saying presidents are not monarchs.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu, who is also showing dictatorial tendencies, is against the military intervention.

There, however, appears several to be options now to get Mugabe out constitutionally if he insists on serving his term.

One is for the party to show a vote of no confidence in him and recall him.

The other is for Parliament to impeach him.

The third is to ask him to step down at the special party congress which was called to confirm him as the presidential candidate for next year’s elections.

Other members of the mediation team are Defence Forces chief Constantino Chiwenga, the Acting Director-General of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Aaron Nhepera; and the Presidential Press Secretary George Charamba.

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