A coup in Zimbabwe? Says who?

The country has all the features of a military takeover, but ...

16 November 2017 - 06:20 By Ray Ndlovu and ray thompson in harare
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MILITARY RULE Young women walk past an armoured personnel carrier at an intersection as Zimbabwean soldiers regulate traffic in Harare on Wednesday.
MILITARY RULE Young women walk past an armoured personnel carrier at an intersection as Zimbabwean soldiers regulate traffic in Harare on Wednesday.
Image: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP

The day started with reports of shots being fired outside Zimbabwe's long-time ruler Robert Mugabe's house, and ended with a Southern African Development Community delegation hastily leaving for Harare in an obvious attempt to try to stop an audacious and carefully co-ordinated coup attempt from succeeding.

What transpired from the early hours of Wednesday morning had all the features of a coup d'état - the illegal and overt seizure of a state by the military - yet Zimbabwe's army bosses refused to call it that.

Mugabe was "safe", Major-General Sibusiso Moyo said on the Zimbabwean state broadcaster (now controlled by the army), insisting "this is not a military takeover", as armoured vehicles and troops rolled into the capital.

"We are only targeting criminals around him [Mugabe]," he added.

Later reports suggested Mugabe, who has been president of Zimbabwe since 1980 and recently fired his vice-president Emmerson "The Crocodile" Mnangagwa, was under house arrest. President Jacob Zuma said he was "confined" to his house and announced he sent an SADC delegation to meet Mugabe and the Zimbabwean Defence Force, probably posing an unexpected challenge for the military.

There was no official word on Mugabe's wife Grace, who was apparently the one who convinced her husband to get rid of Mnangagwa.

The SADC's intervention might well have come too little too late for Mugabe.

The military seized all the national key points, which included the airport and the national broadcaster, and cordoned off parliament and the Munhumutapa offices, where Mugabe's office is housed.

Alex Magaisa, a Kent University lecturer on Zimbabwe, said the term coup carried innuendos that the new power brokers did not want to be associated with.

So, with careful craftsmanship, the military instead pledged to protect citizens and return to civilian rule, once it had completed its mission of dealing with criminal elements that surrounded Mugabe.

Derek Matyszak, an analyst at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, told AFP he believed negotiations were already under way in Zimbabwe.

"I think the army is in negotiations with Mugabe and Mnangagwa.

"The easiest way to present a veneer of legality is that Mugabe reappoints Mnangagwa as vice-president - briefly - and Mugabe then retires."

Under Zimbabwe's constitution, the first vice-president would automatically become acting president for 90 days.

Matyszak suggested that, in that time, Zanu-PF would agree on a new party leader who would also become president, "which would undoubtedly be Mnangagwa".

Zuma issued a veiled warning to the Zimbabwean military.

"President Zuma has reiterated his call for calm and restraint and for the Zimbabwe Defence to ensure that peace and stability are not undermined in Zimbabwe. SADC will continue to monitor the situation closely," said his spokesman Bongani Ngqulunga.

As history unfolded, Harare residents seemed to continue with their lives as normal. There was little disruptions to their daily routines, with supermarkets and schools remaining open.

But a resident, who did not want to be named, told The Times it was a difficult time.

"Everything happening in Zimbabwe is very confusing. The most prevailing emotion is anxiety."

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