Democracy is not for African countries. They are all corrupt with leaders that Rob them blind.
Our democracy in America has failed. I hope other countries are watching the antics of the president of the so called most democratic country in the world.
There are options other than monarchies and democracies. Its time to explore those options.
2
What a total loser. Democracy is not for every country. It is barely holding up in our so called first world. After the election of Trump, ALL countries should reevaluate their commitment to the democratic system of government.
Democracy is NOT working in 90 percent of African countries. Mugabe is one example of ABSOLUTE corruption, greed and shameless abuse of power.
Nigeria, the most populous African country is a democracy too. But despite its much touted oil money is MUCH MORE corrupt than Zimbabwe. It is horrifying.
As we read and hear in the news, that country, Nigeria, is being gutted by elected officials, and others who continue to rob it. To date, it is rumored they do NOT have regular electric power. Yet they are a top oil producing company ... Another failed democracy.
In South Africa, the situation is really bad too. Zuma is a brazen Kleptocrat with his mystifying control of parliament. He and his cronies continue to violate South Africa.
Democracy only works with an educated electorate who will elect individuals fit for office.
This expectation has failed woefully everywhere. America is the poster child of a failed democratic system.
5
Might be good for Zuma to keep a watch on this as it progresses as his excesses in South Africa also seem to be leading him to a similar fate. Mugabe would have died as president had it not been for Grace Mugabe whose arrogance rubbed too many people the wrong way that for the first time they all united to do something.
2
Live by the sword, die by the sword. But if it's a coup, who knows whether whatever comes after Mugabe will be better?
2
Bannana Republic run by a Dictator has come to an end. let us hope the next guys are better than the senile and comatose Mugabe.
1
Unsurprisingly, even in the last hour of Mugabe’s sinister rule, leftists see everything that’s bad as coming from “the West”. Upon taking power, Mugabe gladly agreed not to touch farms and companies owned by white people because he and his comrades needed to get rich first, and killing the goose laying the golden eggs would have not been smart.
Two decades later, now the richest people in a country shattered by government’s violence, corruption and economic ineptitude, Mugabe seized the farms owned by whites - not for the benefit of the Zimbabwean people, but only to reward his thugs. That resulted in the complete collapse of the country’s economy and endless misery for ordinary people.
Western governments long kept mum, because they didn’t want to be accused of neo-colonialism, racism and the whole litany of leftist claims made against anybody who dares to criticize some Marxist “hero” turned tyrant. They acted only when the whole country sank into economic abyss, with the most severe consequences for the people.
And now that’s how your comment gets commendation from the NYT - pretend that western governments cared only about white property. Who cares about the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans, black or white, when you can make an ideological point ?
4
Where is Grace Mugabe? Is she in custody? Unless I overlooked it, the article does not say.
1
He needs to be shipped off to the Hague. In addition to his crimes against humanity, he took the breadbasket of Africa and turned it into the basketcase of Africa. I only hope ZImbabwe can once again return to the promise that the transfer of power in 1980 held for this beautiful land.
4
People put money in the banks in Harare?
It's Africa, beset by unsustainable population growth.
It will get worse. And not get better.
2
"the apparent coup had occurred without violence or resistance"
What was all the gunfire about?
2
This article states: “Though now viewed as a pariah in the West, Mr. Mugabe is seen by many Africans as a freedom fighter and an elder statesman, having helped liberate his country from colonialism and white-minority rule.”
Is this really the view of “many Africans”, as in the impoverished, brutalized two generations of Zimbabweans who were born during Mugabe’s iron-fisted rule and have no recollection of colonialism ? Or is it the view of “the Crocodile” (the recently removed Zimbabwean vice-president), or South-Africa’s notoriously corrupt president, “Machine Gun” Zuma, or other African rich tyrants who carefully protect each other, and the view of the western left who tirelessly supports them ?
6
It has been tragic to watch the deterioration of Zimbabwe over the past 30 years. When I first visited the country in 1987, it had an infrastructure that was not present in other countries in South Eastern Africa like Kenya and Tanzania for example. The Colonialists had plan to stay in Zimbabwe and South Africa while stealing everything they could get away with elsewhere. The country had tremendous potential.
Not only was the infrastructure in place at that time the was actually producing enough agricultural goods to export to other countries. Mr. Mugabe restless policies and corruption took the country to new depths of poverty and suffering. He saw himself as President for Life. Just when one thought things could get worse, his wife allies helped us to learn that they could. While one does not welcome military coup, something needed to happen in this beautiful country inhabited by people who have had a zest for life under very difficult circumstances. The people have a right to remove oppressive leaders from power. Elections will not accomplished this, especially when rigged.
The African Union has all too often refused to opposed former liberation fighters who once in power have been just ruthless and corrupt as the former colonizers. Uganda was another example until Tanzania stepped with its army.
2
I was in Zimbabwe this summer, a beautiful place with a mad max feel. Pictures of Uncle Bob in all the public buildings, no national currency, poverty to the extreme. Basically the place was a economic wreck but the people were great. They have some of the best farm land all of Africa but can't feed themselves. This has to be viewed as very positive news and hope to go back someday to a much better Zimbabwe.
1
There's a noticeable difference between a tank and other types of armored fighting vehicles used by militaries, including the level of potential violence implied by their presence in the street during political unrest. Perhaps I'm naive, but I've developed the expectation that reporters and editors at major news organizations know the difference, and that their reporting will reflect it.
1
I hope there will gradually be more history of the country written for us by reporters at the NYTimes.
The NYT has been virtually ignoring Zimbabwe for years. I'm not at all surprised that this story is pretty much buried at the bottom of "Top News". Zimbabwe is important! Mugabe was a genocidal Maoist butcher who led a once-prosperous country to socialist ruin. He ruled purely by the use of murderous force.
But this goes against the left-liberal fairy tales the NYT and WaPo want to tell us about how bad free markets are, how wonderful socialism is, how wonderful third-world revolutionaries are, how everything became wonderful in African countries after independence and socialism, etc., ad nauseam...
I hope real democracy will be established, a free economy will be restored, and that the Zimbabwean diaspora will return and help rebuild their ruined country.
8
Dear Charles,
Sorry, but you claim Zimbabwe is important. Why? There is really very little hope of a real democracy or a free economy. Even a working economy is unlikely. Misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, and archaic belief systems are the norm. Zimbabwe went from being a major exporter of food in Southern Africa to having a large percentage of its people starving, and the military coup is not likely to change that.
And we are talking about roughly 16 million people here. That's about 0.2% of the world's population. Zimbabwe, currently, produces nothing anyone relies on, and is not making any advances in science, medicine, or anything else.
So, I am very sorry about this, but I don't see what is so important to the world about Zimbabwe, aside from the usual, "oh how terribly those people are suffering", which is constant and far more widespread than just this nation.
3
Good riddance! Thanks to the white racists tolerated by Britain for too long after the famous "Wind of Change" speech by British PM mr. MacMillan and the Communist Chinese (they were doctrinaire Marxist then) who sponsored Mr. Mugabe, Zimbabwe's prospects as a prosperous multi party nation was destroyed. Mr. Mugabe started out as an avowed Marxist, well schooled by his revolutionary minded Chinese mentors and transformed himself into a cruel tyrant. In the process Zimbabwe's economy was destroyed as also it's polity. Once popular moderate leaders such as Rev Abel Muzorewa and Rev Sithole were marginalised. It is amazing that despite such despotic rule of four decades there still remained in Zimbabwe some independent minded opposition leaders such as Mr. Tsavangirai. It is to be hoped he will lead his country and endure democratic rule.
3
Mrs Mugabe apparently raids the coffers of the banks at the Victoria Falls every three months. This helped pay for her recent shopping trip to New York. Perhaps the powers that are to be are worried that what little is left in foreign currency won't support their life styles. And was it last year I read that Chinese own 80% of the mines and that unemployment is 80%?
There is always hope -- maybe in the young Zimbabweans.
2
How much money has he (allegedly) stolen over the years? Can we put a dollar amount on that? Do any of the leaked "papers" give us a glimpse into the money he's stashed away?
7
No question Mugabe was in office too long... But I see only one or two comments that really addressed what destroyed the economy. Let's be brutally honest he was suppressing opposition through force with the tacit approval of the west as long as he "played the game". Once he told whites to "give back the land" their forefathers took by force (it was called Rhodesia because of the racist Cecil Rhodes) the west turned against him. Once that happens - similar to the treatment of Haiti after forcibly throwing off slavery - you will be shut out of the western economic system. The brutal reality is - killing Africans to stay in power is ok - but expecting whites to pay some sort of "reparation" is a line not to be crossed. So I'm not sorry for Mugabe - because he held on too long. Also - I hope the nation can build itself - but let's not look at history through hypocritical eyes/reporting.
24
Thanks for the partially true history lesson.
Just look at Zimbabwe's neighbors and see how they reacted after majority ruled. That's how it should have been done.
Mugabe killed many more of his fellow Africans than the British did.
10
Rolf - you miss the point. Like many others before him in various parts of the world Mugabe's killings were tolerated and/or supported by "the west" as long as he played the game. Once he switched he became labeled "a brutal tyrant". It's called hypocrisy.
1
An interesting take on history. The farms expropriated by Mugabe were given to ZANU cronies, who had no idea how to do large-scale agriculture and were more interested in rent-seeking than doing the work. Blaming the West is feel-good revisionism.
Most of the African countries are doing worse after getting rid of the colonialists (SA included). I wonder why. Actually, there is no need to wonder: - corruption, crumbling infrastructure, violence, population explosion have nothing to do with the white ...oppressors.
3
About time. What a classic corrupt clown tyrant. But who knows that what or whomever comes next will be any better.
10
Regime change in Africa rarely leads to better governance.
8
It has always stunned me that despots can continue to rule; obviously, they're adept at keeping the powerful in power and therefor garnering support, but that some 93-year-old mummy is capable of keeping an iron-fisted reign on a third-world country is shocking.
Sheeple.
3
True, a 93-year old fossil unwilling to give up the reins. It is time.
2
Morgan has no war cred. Doesnt that opposition party -MDC- have some younger person who fought in the war of independence, say someone born in 1960 or so? As for that white girl who insulted Mugabe on twitter, she should be forced to do 50 hours of community service then hired as a social media advisor.
Don't you mean older person.
Mugabe is 93!
1
As for that white girl (is that racism or sexism in the classification, or perhaps both?), she should be freed immediately. Insulting Mugabe is always the right thing to do, although not the smart thing to do while within Zimbabwe. If she's freed, I hope she does the right thing and gets the heck out of there.
2
Mugabe was a thug and a murderer
Good riddance to him
15
The real unfortunate part of it, to me, is that he didn't die in some public, humiliating way. He deserved far more than a bloodless coup.
2
I am not sure why this key story is tucked 2-3 screens down from the main page. It is sad to see the NYTimes following the lead of other US media in being so parochial. International developments matter.
Am I dreaming or has the option for some international perspective recently dissolved on the NYTimes? There used to be a more robust international edition. Time to reconsider my subscription.
16
Too many years of free content is one of the culprits. The venerable International Herald Tribune was rebranded as the Intl. New York Times after the Washington Post sold its interest in the paper some years ago. The cutbacks at the Times and nearly every other paper, are not made good by the 'new media'.
1
Zimbabwe had been the breadbasket of southern Africa until Mugabe threw out the white farmers. He gave the land to his political pals, who knew nothing about farming and destroyed once productive agricultural land, ruining the whole economy and bringing hunger to millions of people who depended on the commercial farms. All the animals on large wildlife reserves were snared and eaten within weeks of the takeovers, destroying tourism. With its economic bases destroyed, the once prosperous country plunged into into abject poverty and hunger, no longer able to feed itself, let alone all the other countries that had depended on its agriculture. This was a rerun of the Uganda disaster in 1972, when Idi amin threw out the Asians who were the backbone of its economy, plunging that country into poverty and chaos.
After two generations of gross corruption, thievery and political repression, will a new crop of leaders show any more civic responsibility than Mugabe? The history of regime change in Africa does not encourage optimism for Zimbabwe.
33
Nonsense.
The white farmers were racist thieves who stole the land. Africa was divided by European savage inhumane evil colonial powers at the end of the 19th century without regard to human beings nor ethnic groups nor history. The European savages exploited their African natural resources for their own benefit. Two European centered world wars are evidence of where the real beasts dwell and duel. Japan wanted to replace the Europeans and Americans in Asia.
The royal heads of Europe are the root of evil in Africa. Followed by their secular heirs in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and America.
3
For as much damage as Mugabe, Mnagwagwa and the other persons named here have collectively done to the country it's beyond me how they can stake a claim as to whom should take over. This surreal moment in the life of most Zimbabweans should rather become an opportunity to correct course rather than engage in their political theater. Zanu PF is welcome to continue the power struggles within the mansions they built on top of peoples suffering but enough is enough, they all must go.
3
I see a lot of hopeful remarks that this will benefit the people of Zimbabwe. Realistically, there is no hope. The military is protecting their share of the country's booty by forcing Mugabe out and his wife along with him. Things will continue pretty much as they were--graft, corruption, no jobs, etc., etc.
14
Mugabe's destruction of one of the most promising economies in sub-Saharan Africa, and his brutal crushing of political and human rights, was enabled every step of the way by the "white guilt" diplomacy of the UK, EU, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the "white guilt" news "coverage" of the BBC.
7
The same can be said about every other country in sub-Saharan Africa.
2
Reminds me of last month’s Chinese Communist Party congress to choose a new leader, except possibly fewer deaths.
1
Under Mugabe, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and went from Africa’s breadbasket to a starving, gasping hellhole of a dictatorship masquerading as a republic. Here’s to seeing the rebirth of the nation— without him and his power hungry wife.
14
Do you honestly believe blacks were beneficiaries of "Rhodesia"?
The corruption and nepotism of Mugabe's rule would never happen here in the United States.
We have separate branches of government and institutions to protect us from such naked graft.
Oy vey!
4
Wonder what the Chinese intend to set up here?
2
Mugabe threw out some Chinese companies mining some diamond fields only last year. A lot of cash (and potential cash) went down the drain and China cancelled some further investments there as they were beginning to doubt Zim’s trustworthiness. Maybe a link? Who knows.
3
They are there big time already!
It's about time that old crackpot got taken out. It should have happened 20 years ago. Maybe his good buddy Zuma will allow him to retire in South Africa.
A sense of what the dissipation of wealth has meant in Saudi Arabia over the last 40 years as compared to economically beset Zimbabwe, real per capita Gross Domestic Product decreased 44.5% in oil-rich Saudi Arabia between 1977 and 2016 while decreasing 19.0% in Zimbabwe:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=fJQx
August 4, 2014
Real per capita Gross Domestic Product for Zimbabwe and Saudi Arabia, 1977-2016
(Indexed to 1977)
3
In the late 80s, on my last day in Zimbabwe, I walked the streets of Harare with the Jacaranda trees in full bloom. The beauty of it all brought tears to my eyes. In the three decades since then, a lot of tears have flowed in Zimbabwe; but for tragically different reasons. It's good to see Mugabe go, even if it is 30 years too late. May the people of Zimbabwe have a brighter future.
67
The people of Zimbabwe could have had a brighter future if they'd overthrown that despot 30 years ago.
6
Blah Blah. Zimbabwe was the skeletal husk left over from Rhodesia. Who cares about your tears over some imported trees blooming? Trees are not as beautiful as people. Except for an inhumane privileged few. The Jacaranda Tree is not native to Africa.
2
Mugabe led what used to be a prosperous country into the ground, with tacit cheering from the rest of Africa. We'll see if the next crop of leaders, most of whom are 'Mugabists' are capable of doing better. They surely cannot do worse.
24
They can always do worse, and usually do.
1
That the BBC has covered Zimbabwe religiously is correct compared with the New York Times. Mugabe has suppressed and oppressed his people for the last four decades. Graft has flourished to the extent that there is no infrastructure and capitalism is nonexistent -lack of jobs and everything else. I remember when my passport said "To all countries except Rhodesia and South Africa". Rhodesia fell off the list in 1979 and South Africa in 1990. All the garbage came in under the guise of a benefit want democratic savior he has done nothing of the sort and the country has suffered anonymously. It is time he got a taste of his own medicine after making himself a billionaire many times over.
19
I guess your point is proven when I get new breaking news through reading your comments rather than reading it in the NYT.
Thank you, VP Mnangagwa, Gen. Chiwenga, and the ZDF, for your service to the people of Zimbabwe! Now respect the needs and will of said people better than that hideous dictator and his appointed successor you both just brushed aside, and you will forever be heroes of history to your country and your world.
14
It was a pretty bloodless coup as far as coups go. I think the mistake Ms.Mugabe made was that while she had political support her followers did not have the military firepower or connections to defend themselves against the army. Hubris on their part. I wonder if Mugabe will throw her under the bus in return for a peaceful retirement
6
For all his faults, Mugabe will remain an icon in the struggle against white supremacy and colonization in Africa and internationally. The armed struggle he and others led was critical to forcing whites to abandon colonialism and its concomitant evils. It is time for him to leave the scene with dignity and with recognition for his contributions to the African liberation struggle. As Bob Marley sang: "set it up in Zimbabwe."
4
After ruining the country for 40 yrs?!! A generation is 25 years. He has ruined the lives of 2 generations. You must have a long rope to tolerate dictators of his kind! The man has been nothing but a slightly benevolent form of Idi Amin.
4
Your opinion is a very small minority. Almost all reasonable and knowledgable people will say good riddance to an incompetent thug. There is some hope for Zimbabwe at last.
5
Touching tribute, but the people were in fact better off under colonialism. Mugabe is a monster who devastated the country that used to be the breadbasket of Africa.
4
The NYT's coverage on these developments is really feeble compared to the BBC. I'm afraid that good as it is, the NYT reflects the relative lack of interest of its clients in matters much removed from the US. BBC says Grace Mugabe is reported to have left the country last night seeking asylum in Namibia. What I'd be fascinated to have reported would be an analysis of how the Chinese will play this. The Mugabe's are reported to have seen Hong Kong as a potential refuge if they had to flee from power. Will the Chinese facilitate Grace's grasp for money? Will they see it advantageous to support the Mugabe's ill gotten gains to retain favor with other tyrants they support? Or will they seek stronger advantage from the new government by facilitating the return of stolen assets to the new regime?
49
I'm all for full coverage but comparing NYT coverage to BBC's without noting that Zimbabwe is a former British colony, Rhodesia, is at best naïve.
1
I'm not hopeful. Both sides of this struggle are members of the kleptocratic and authoritarian ZANU-PF Party. Nobody is representing the will of the people.
Whoever ends up on top after the dust settles, Zimbabweans are likely to see no significant change. Perhaps it'll be different hands in their pocketbooks and pointing guns toward them.
27
Are you talking about Zimbabwe or the US?
13
Travel to a place like Zimbabwe and get some perspective. All institutions and governments have faults.
To suggest the governments of the US and ZImbabwe are equivalent demonstrates willful ignorance or something worse.
3
The Africans can't do much worse than the kleptocratic and authoritarian white European savages who colonized and exploited them and their land and their natural resources. The EU, EZ and NATO are merely the latest plundering and pillaging barbarians.
1
I believe that the military was happy to abet Mugabe's predations for as long as they could take a cut; that, and possessing an endemic short-sightedness that plagues many societies like it.
But Mugabe was, in their view anyway, intestate: his senility and lassitude allowed his wife Grace to arrange to succeed him almost effortlessly. And then what would happen to their part of the game? They'd end up looking as thrashed as her sons' girfriends were.
I don't think "concern with international opinion" had much to do at all with the armed forces springing into action; more, that they saw themselves being excluded in the (revised) game of musical chairs, and seized the initiative.
9
How the mighty have fallen! Why, only a month ago Mugabe was named the UN Goodwill Ambassador. What a joke.
As commented by others I hope this is a change for the better for the people of Zimbabwe. They have suffered greatly and I hope they are able to push for positive change.
32
I am really surprised that people in the USA gave not drawn a connection between Mugabe and President Trump. They are slipping.
16
Funny - I did wonder as I read the article, "When will president Trump name the road to the airport after himself?"
15
Perhaps because there is no connection between Mugabe and President Trump,
3
4th para from the end of the article:
"But Mr. Mnangagwa has a longstanding reputation as a sometimes brutal ally of Mr. Mugabe. He is believed to have played a key role in the Gukurahundi massacres of the Ndebele ethnic group in the 1980s."
An excellent example of burying the lede. A detailed follow-up article is needed.
27
Military coups generally have a poor track record in improving lives, but it's not like Zimbabwe has much left to lose after the last few decades of Mugabe's misrule. One can only hope things get better rather than worse for all its citizens.
72
What are you writing about? What next? Water is wet? Who knew?
Military coups are not intended to improve lives. Hope and prayer are useless excuses for inaction. We don't need nobody without any special insight or knowledge.
America supported a military coup in Egypt. America engineered a military coup in Iran. America supports ethnic sectarian supremacist autocrats in Tel Aviv and Riyadh. Europe and America supported white supremacist rule in Rhodesia and South Africa. America supported a military coup in the Congo that led to the murder of Patrice Lumumba and the rise of Mobutu.
3
I hate to say that I approve of any coups but this one has my tacit approval so far. Mugabe has been a negative influence in Zimbabwe recovering from the damages of European colonialism. He needed to encourage foreign investment not burn all bridges with wealthy countries. The oppression of minority tribal groups must also be stopped.
27
Depends on how that foreign investment takes places. Many former African countries - like space colonies in the west ended up indebted to governments and companies from the same former colonies. It is exactly that reason people like Mugabe start out as "heroes" in these situations
1
Compared to Cecil Rhodes and Ian Smith, Robert Mugabe is a saint. His ethnic majority Shona have malignly ruled and reigned over the minority ethnic Ndebele.
1
Mugabe destroyed a once wonderful country, and precipitated a huge exodus of Zimbabweans to South Africa (not unlike what has happened in Central America and the US). If he can be removed, along with his wife, the coup may be deemed acceptable. New & fair elections would be required within 6 months.
71
You know nothing at all. Cecil Rhodes and Ian Smith destroyed and exploited this country including it's people, it's wildlife and natural resources. When was the last time America demanded a free and fair election in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Israeli Empire?
3
I found the African Union's opinions of this military takeover amusing while I was listening to the reports on NPR this morning. Apparently, the military is hesitant to call it a coup because coups are no longer "popular" with the African Union. The African Union wants to make sure power is transferred "democratically"!
Was Mugabe's rule "democratic"? Was the murdering of thousands of opponents, torture, fixing elections, and staying in power for nearly 40 years democracy? Was beating up your opponents supporters before elections a democratic tactic?
I have no idea what's going on over there but Jacob Zuma and the African Union should stay out of it. Hopefully a very dangerous corrupt tyrant is going to get his due and something resembling a democracy will take his place.
No matter what happens it is destined to be more "democratic" than what has been taking place for nearly 40 years.
66
As long as Zuma and the AU shelters murderous war criminals like Sudan's Bashir or Mugabe, they are about as legitimate as them.
12
Indeed and hopefully zuma is next
Africa was the victim of savage inhumane white supremacist colonial rule and exploitation by royal ethnic sectarian leaders and secular and military leaders.
Do you think that World War I and World War II were "amusing" and "democratic"?
Do you miss Nazi Germany, the Australo-Hungarian Empire, the Soviet Union, the British, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Belgian and Dutch Empires?
1
The people of Zimbabwe have suffered long enough. Whoever takes over needs to call elections ASAP. Morgan Tsvangirai, the one valid leader left, must call for elections and ensure that they happen fairly.
16
Finally a glimmer of hope for a beleaguered nation too long at the mercy of a murderous tyrant.
34
With the experience of having lived in Zimbabwe for several years, I have long suspected that Mugabe (whether he personally realized it or not) is a front man for the military, anyway.
This probably is more like a "coup" against Grace, a defanging of her quest for power. But they had to go through her husband to get at her.
50
It's good to see Mugabe fall from power, but it is very worrisome that it was a military coup. There's no assurance that a benevolent ruler will come out of this, and a democratic election seems unlikely too. So I'm worried that Zimbabwe has just gone from one murderous, vicious leader to another one.
19
No idea what will happen, but good to see Mugabe being tossed out. I hope Zimbabwe can finally see true democracy and fully realize its enormous potential.
15
Dream on.
This is not an uprising by 'the people' or by the political opposition. The people in charge now have been close to Mugabe for decades. That's why it will be resolved quietly.
Mugabe and his wife are out, and maybe some of the opposition figures will be brought into a coalition government. It will only be an incremental change and an incremental improvement.
9
Long overdue, but it remains to be seen whether or not the military will open up the country to democracy or institute another military government under the facade of coalition governing. The people, as always, will suffer as a result.
29
When has America or Americans ever cared about democratic rule that recognizes the natural divine equal certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
How did the 6 million Christian Muslim Arab Palestinian Israelis under the dominion of 6.1 million Israeli Jews vote in the last Israeli election?
How did the people of Saudi Arabia vote in their last election?
How did America engineer a coup against democracy in Iran?
3
It’s about time. This guy should have left office decades ago. Hopefully this will user in a government that has the people it governs as its primary concern.
12
Sic semper tyrannis!
22
I honestly think they are trying to figure out what next. This could go either way. Nevertheless, the leveling winds of change are blowing.
16
It's business as usual in Harare at the moment. No celebrations, no demonstrations, no mobs, no big fuss, just people going about their normal daily routine.
Why? Because this is just an internal conflict between factions within the ruling party, within the existing power structure. Mnangagwa 'the Crocodile', who is now apparently taking over, is one of the most feared men in Zimbabwe. He was deeply involved in the Gukurahundi massacres in the 1980s, as Minister of State Security under Mugabe. He was Vice-President of Zimbabwe until very recently.
This 'coup' may lead to some improvements, because the faction that's now seized power has been talking about economic reforms, and seems a little more open to negotiations with the opposition - but it's certainly not a revolution.
6