Zimbabwe’s military says in a new statement it supports a rally called for Saturday in the capital that will urge President Robert Mugabe to step aside.
The statement read out on state-run television also says the military’s operation “remains solid” and Zimbabweans are urged to remain patient.
The military is pursuing talks with Mugabe on the “way forward” while arresting some top allies of him and his wife.
Zimbabwe’s state-run broadcaster is reporting that the ruling party is seeking the departure of President Robert Mugabe, under the previously unthinkable headline “ZANU-PF calls on Pres Mugabe to resign.”
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation report at the top of the nightly news comes as Zimbabweans are using the political limbo to express themselves.
Opposition members and others have called for a rally Saturday in the capital, Harare, to urge Mugabe to go. They say the rally has the backing of the military, which stepped in this week amid alarm that Mugabe was positioning his wife to succeed him.
The ZBC television report includes party members speaking out against the president.
A UK-based official with Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party says all 10 of the party’s provincial branches are calling for the removal of President Robert Mugabe.
Nick Mangwana says on Twitter that the branches have agreed to direct the party’s Central Committee to recall Mugabe as party leader. Recently fired Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa would assume the acting leadership until the party’s congress next month.
Whoever leads the party would run for president of Zimbabwe in next year’s elections.
It is not clear when the ruling party’s Central Committee would meet.
The privately owned Zimbabwean newspaper Newsday is reporting that all 10 of ZANU-PF’s provincial branches have passed votes of no confidence in Mugabe as leader.
A poster circulating in Zimbabwe’s capital is calling on citizens to rally on Saturday to “remove Mugabe from power.”
Calls for the solidarity march to the State House say both the military and the opposition are supporting it.
“We can’t have a 93-year-old person ruling more than 15 million people,” the poster says.
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