Facing impeachment, Mugabe resigns as president of Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe resigned as president of Zimbabwe Tuesday, parliament speaker Jacob Mudenda announced, bringing the curtain down on a 37-year reign.

Mugabe was swept from power as his autocratic rule crumbled within days of a military takeover.

A resignation letter was read out in a cheering, dancing parliament, which had been pursuing impeachment of the 93-year-old Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state.

“I Robert Gabriel Mugabe in terms of section 96 of the constitution of Zimbabwe hereby formally tender my resignation… with immediate effect,” said Mudenda, reading the letter.

The bombshell news was delivered to a special joint session of parliament.

Lawmakers had convened to debate a motion to impeach Mugabe, who has dominated every aspect of Zimbabwean public life since independence in 1980.

It was greeted on the streets of the capital Harare with car horns and wild cheering.

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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.

The resignation comes at the end of a week of extraordinary events that began with the military moving in, angered by Mugabe’s firing of his longtime deputy and the positioning of the unpopular first lady to succeed him.

Impeachment allegations against Mugabe included that he “allowed his wife to usurp constitutional power” and that he is “of advanced age” and too incapacitated to rule.

Mugabe also was accused of allowing first lady Grace Mugabe to threaten to kill the recently fired vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa and other officials.