Mugabe to be impeached?

Rumour going around is that the opposition is set to revive its bid to impeach President Robert Mugabe, this time with the full support of MPs loyal to sacked Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), which has since fallen out with the Zanu PF leader.

The former liberation war fighters who are loyal to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said they were willing to support the country's largest opposition party in its bid to impeach Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from the British in 1980.

The opposition is understood to have seized on the offer and has started engaging Mnangagwa loyalists and ZNLWVA to agree on the strategic and tactical issues involved. More importantly, the opposition wants to assess if ZNLWVA commands the numbers they claim to have in the National Assembly to enable the impeachment motion to gain traction.

Impeachment refers to an act of calling into question the integrity or validity of a holder of public office.

Zimbabwe has 210 Members of Parliament in the National Assembly and 93 senators, with the MDC having only 70 legislators in the lower house and 20 in the upper house. This means that Zanu PF has an overwhelming majority.

For any impeachment motion to go through, it needs the support of a two-thirds majority.