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Embattled Zimbabwe’s long-time president Robert Mugabe has agreed to the terms of his resignation and a letter has been drafted, CNN reports, quoting an official source with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
According to the source, some of Mugabe’s demands include full immunity for himself and his wife Grace, and that he would keep his private properties.
For the resignation to formally take place, however, a letter must first be sent to the speaker of Parliament, added the source.
The source reportedly added that the aim of Sunday’s televised address — in which Mugabe appeared to resist calls to step aside — was to ensure the veteran leader openly declared the military’s actions to be constitutional.
Mugabe, 93, has been under house arrest since the military seized power last week. In the Sunday televised address, he refused to say if he was stepping down.
His party, ZANU-PF had sacked him as leader and also expelled his wife, Grace. The party, apart from announcing former Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa as the new leader, gave Mugabe 24 hours to resign or be impeached.
On Saturday, thousands of Zimbabweans had taken to the streets calling for him to go.
But in a bizarre and rambling speech, Mugabe instead insisted he was going nowhere, and that he would see his political party Zanu-PF through its congress in a few weeks.
Harare resident Tina Madzimure called the speech “an embarrassment really. He made a fool out of the generals.”
“This man will go to his grave with Zimbabwe in his hands,” she told CNN.