Inside State House in Harare,
Robert Mugabe was in the tightest spot of his 37-year rule. Tanks were
on the streets and troops had occupied the state broadcaster, from where
the army had announced it had taken control of Zimbabwe.
Mugabe, 93 years old but still alert, remained
defiant. The only leader the country had known since independence was
refusing to quit.
At a tense meeting with his military top brass on
Nov. 16, the world's oldest head of state put his foot down: "Bring me
the constitution and tell me what it says," he ordered military chief
Constantino Chiwenga, according to two sources present.
An aide brought a copy of the constitution, which lays out that the president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Chiwenga, dressed in camouflage fatigues, hesitated
before replying that Zimbabwe was facing a national crisis that demanded
military intervention.
Mugabe retorted that the army was the problem,
according to the sources present. Then the beleaguered president
indicated that perhaps they could find a solution together.
The meeting marked the start of an extraordinary
five-day standoff between Mugabe and Zimbabwe's supreme law on one side,
and the military, his party and Zimbabwe's people on the other.
The generals wanted Mugabe to go, but they also
wanted a peaceful "coup," one that would not irreparably tarnish the
administration aiming to take over, according to multiple military and
political sources.
The president finally accepted defeat only after he
was sacked by his own ZANU-PF party and faced the ignominy of
impeachment. He signed a short letter of resignation to parliament
speaker Jacob Mudenda that was read out to lawmakers on Nov. 21.
Mugabe, who had run Zimbabwe since 1980 and overseen
its descent into economic ruin while his wife shopped for luxury goods,
was gone.
The country erupted into ecstasy. Parliamentarians
danced and people poured onto the streets in their tens of thousands to
celebrate a political downfall that sent shockwaves across Africa and
the world.
To many, the end of Mugabe had been unthinkable only one week before.
Reuters has pieced together the events leading up to
Mugabe's removal, showing that the army's action was the culmination of
months of planning that stretched from Harare to Johannesburg to
Beijing.
BITTER RIVALRY
Drawing on a trove of intelligence documents from
within Mugabe's feared Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), Reuters
reported in September that the army was backing Emmerson Mnangagwa, then
vice president, to succeed Mugabe when the time came.
The report detailed how Mnangagwa, a
lifelong friend and former security chief of Mugabe, might cooperate
with Mugabe's political foes in order to revive the economy. It caused
furore in Zimbabwe's media and political circles.
Bitter rivalry intensified between Mnangagwa
and Grace, Mugabe's 52-year-old wife, who also hoped to take over as
president and had the backing of a ZANU-PF faction known as G40.
In early October, Mnangagwa said he had been
airlifted to hospital in South Africa after a poisoning attempt in
August. He pointed no fingers - but he didn't need to.
Grace's swift response was to deny it and
accuse her rival of seeking sympathy; she belittled him as nothing but
an employee of her husband, according to a report in the state-run
Herald newspaper.
As the pressure built, Mugabe became
increasingly paranoid about the loyalty of army chief Chiwenga, a career
soldier and decorated veteran of Zimbabwe's 1970s bush-war against
white-minority rule.
Mugabe's spies, who permeated every
institution and section of society in Zimbabwe, were warning him the
military would not accept Grace as president.
"Mugabe is very worried of a coup," one
intelligence report, dated Oct. 23, said. "Mugabe was openly told by
senior CIOs that the military is not going to easily accept the
appointment of Grace. He was warned to be ready for civil war."
Reuters reviewed the document, and hundreds
of other intelligence reports dating back to 2009, before the coup took
place. The documents come from within the CIO, but Reuters could not
determine for whom they were written. The CIO is split into factions,
some pro- and some anti-Mugabe.
In late October, Mugabe summoned Chiwenga to
a showdown, according to another of the documents, dated Oct. 30. It
said Mugabe confronted the army chief about his ties to Mnangagwa and
told him that going against Grace would cost him his life.
"Chiwenga was warned by Mugabe that it is
high time for him to start following. He mentioned to Chiwenga that
those fighting his wife are bound to die a painful death," the
intelligence report said.
At the same meeting, Mugabe also ordered Chiwenga to pledge allegiance to Grace. He refused.
"Chiwengwa refused to be intimidated. He stood his ground over his loyalty to Mnangagwa," the report said.
Reuters put questions about this exchange
and other aspects of this article to Mugabe's spokesman, George
Charamba. In an enigmatic text message dated Nov. 23, he replied: "Enjoy
Reuters copy. Goodnight."
Two spokesmen for Chiwenga declined to comment.
After another tense meeting with Mugabe on
Nov. 5, Chiwenga left Harare on a pre-arranged official trip and
traveled to China, which wields significant influence as a major
investor in Zimbabwe.
A day later, Mugabe sacked Mnangagwa as vice
president and purged him from ZANU-PF, the liberation movement that
Mnangagwa had served since his youth and for which, as a young militant
caught bombing a train, he had nearly been executed.
For the generals, Mugabe had gone too far.
The military immediately activated a "Code Red" alert, its highest level
of preparedness, a military source said.
ASSASSINATION PLOT
Moments after Mnangagwa was ousted on Nov.
6, the security details assigned to him and his house were withdrawn,
according to a statement he issued later. He was told his life was in
danger.
"Security personnel, who are friendly to me,
warned me that plans were underfoot to eliminate me once arrested and
taken to a police station," Mnangagwa said in a Nov. 21 statement. "It
was in my security interest to leave the country immediately."
From Harare, he managed to escape over the
border into neighboring Mozambique, where he caught a plane to China,
according to one source familiar with his movements. There he met up
with Chiwenga, the source said.
Reuters could not confirm the account; but
an intelligence report from Nov. 13 indicates that Mugabe suspected some
of his generals of preparing to overthrow him from China.
"A number of generals are now in China ready
to plot Mugabe's ouster with Mnangagwa," the report said. It was not
clear which generals, and whether their travel to China was authorized.
Mugabe's spies suspected old allies had
turned against the aging president. An intelligence report, dated Oct.
30, said Beijing and Moscow both supported regime change out of
frustration at Zimbabwe's economic implosion under Mugabe.
"China and Russia are after change," the
report said. "They are after change within ZANU-PF as they are sick and
tired of Mugabe's leadership."
"The two countries are even ready to clandestinely supply arms of war to Mnangagwa to fight Mugabe."
Neither China's Defense Ministry nor Foreign
Ministry responded to a request for comment. The Foreign Ministry had
previously said Chiwenga's visit was "a normal military exchange
mutually agreed upon by China and Zimbabwe."
Reuters sent written requests for comment to
the Kremlin, the Russian Defense Ministry and the
Russian Foreign
Ministry. None of them responded.
China has long taken an interest in
Zimbabwe, having supported Mugabe's forces during the liberation
struggle. After independence it developed connections there in mining,
security and construction.
Russia has also had ties to Zimbabwe since
the early 1980s, and in 2014 a Russian consortium entered into a
partnership to develop a $3 billion platinum mining project in the
country.
Chiwenga's trip to China culminated in him meeting Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan in Beijing on Nov. 10.
Two sources with knowledge of the talks told
Reuters that Chiwenga asked if China would agree not to interfere if he
took temporary control in Zimbabwe to remove Mugabe from power. Chang
assured him Beijing would not get involved and the two also discussed
tactics that might be employed during the de facto coup, the sources
said.
Reuters could not establish whether Mnangagwa met Chang.
Having got wind of the talks in China,
Mugabe summoned his still-loyal police commissioner, Augustine Chihuri,
and his deputy, Innocent Matibiri, to detain Chiwenga on his return to
Harare, government and security sources said.
The pair assembled a squad of 100 police and
intelligence agents. But the plot leaked and Chiwenga supporters
managed to pull together a counter-team of several hundred special
forces soldiers and agents as their commander's plane approached.
Some were disguised as baggage handlers,
their military fatigues and weapons hidden beneath high-visibility
jackets and overalls, one security source said.
Realizing they were outnumbered and
outgunned, Chihuri's police team backed down, allowing Chiwenga to touch
down without incident, the security source said.
Mugabe's spokesman did not comment on the incident.
"VERY ALARMED"
Two days later, Chiwenga and a group of
military commanders demanded a meeting with Mugabe at his official State
House residence in Harare, an ornate colonial villa complete with
stuffed leopards and thick red carpets, according to a government
source.
They said they were "very alarmed" at the
firing of Mnangagwa and told Mugabe to rein in his wife and her G40
faction, whom they accused of trying to divide the military, according
to the government official, who was present at the discussions.
"What do you think should be done?" Mugabe demanded of the soldiers as he sat slumped in an armchair.
The generals asked him to give assurances
that they too would not be purged. Mugabe's response was lukewarm, the
government source said. Chiwenga told Mugabe he would be making his
concerns about the G40 faction public.
Hours later, Chiwenga summoned reporters to the military's main barracks near Harare to issue a statement.
"We must remind those behind the current
treacherous shenanigans that, when it comes to matters of protecting our
revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in," he said,
reading from a prepared text.
The following afternoon, Reuters reported
six armored personnel carriers heading towards the headquarters of
Mugabe's Presidential Guard on the outskirts of Harare. It was unclear
whose command they were under.
At the time, the city's residents were on edge but still unsure what it all meant.
THE LINE WENT DEAD
At around 6 p.m. on Nov. 14, Mugabe's
motorcade headed to his private "Blue Roof" residence, a heavily
fortified compound in the capital's leafy northern suburb of Borrowdale.
Meanwhile, social media buzzed with pictures
of armored vehicles driving along roads to Harare, sparking frenzied
speculation about a coup.
Increasingly concerned, Grace put in a call
shortly after 7 p.m. to a cabinet minister asking to get WhatsApp and
Twitter shut down, according to one source familiar with a recording of
the conversation.
The minister, whose identity Reuters is
withholding for safety reasons, replied that such a move was the
responsibility of state security minister Kembo Mohadi.
"No-one will stand for a coup. It cannot
happen," said Grace, commonly referred to as Amai, which means Mother,
according to a source who heard the recording.
Mugabe's voice is then heard on the line: "As you have heard from Amai, is there anything that can be done?"
The minister gave the same response, about the responsibilities of state security, and the line went dead, the source said.
Mohadi declined to comment.
Two hours later, two armored vehicles rolled
into the Pockets Hill headquarters of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC), according to ZBC sources.
Dozens of soldiers sealed off the site and
stormed into the studios where they accosted staff, snatching their
phones and halting programs. State-owned ZBC, widely seen as a
mouthpiece for Mugabe, switched to broadcasting pop music videos.
Mugabe's inner circle, nearly all of them
G40 loyalists, had no idea what was under way, according to four sources
familiar with their conversations.
Information Minister Simon Khaya Moyo called
Defense Minister Sydney Sekeramayi to ask if he had any information
about a possible coup. Sekeramayi said no, but tried to check with
military chief Chiwenga.
Chiwenga told Sekeramayi he would get back to him. According to the sources, Chiwenga never did.
Moyo remains in hiding and was unavailable for comment. Sekeramayi declined to comment.
SECURITY DETAIL
As ministers in the G40 faction tried frantically to work out what was going on, Chiwenga's men closed in on Mugabe's compound.
According to a source briefed on the
situation, Albert Ngulube, a CIO director and head of Mugabe's security
detail, was driving home around 9.30 p.m. after visiting Mugabe. He met
an armored car on Borrowdale Brooke, a side road leading to Mugabe's
house.
When Ngulube confronted the soldiers and
threatened to shoot them, they beat him up and detained him, the source
said. Ngulube was later released, but had suffered head and facial
injuries, the source added.
Spokesmen for Chiwenga and Mnangagwa declined to comment. Reuters was unable to contact Ngulube.
Other G40 ministers were also picked up by
soldiers. Finance minister Ignatius Chombo was found hiding in a toilet
at his house and beaten before being detained at an undisclosed location
for more than a week.
On his release on Nov. 24, he was
hospitalized with injuries to his hands, legs and back, his lawyer told
Reuters, describing the army's behavior as "brutal and draconian."
Soldiers used explosives to blow the front
door off the house of Jonathan Moyo, the main brains behind G40,
according to video footage of the house seen by Reuters. Others burst
through the front gates of the residence of local government minister
Saviour Kasukuwere, another key Grace supporter.
Both men managed to escape to Mugabe's
residence. Contacted by Reuters shortly after midnight in the early
hours of Nov. 15, Kasukuwere was audibly stressed. "I can't talk. I'm in
a meeting," he said, before hanging up.
For another week, Mugabe clung on to the
presidency as Chiwenga and his forces tried to engineer a peaceful, and
quasi-legal, exit for the long-serving leader.
But as
parliament began impeachment proceedings on Nov. 21, Mugabe finally gave
up. After 37 years in control, during which much of his country fell
into poverty, his letter of resignation said he was stepping down out of
"concern for the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe."
Source...Reuters
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