'Mnangagwa's constitutional options limited'

MDC leader and MDC Alliance spokesperson Welshman Ncube has said former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa's presidential bid will only succeed if he draws lessons from last week's events which saw the army taking charge of political power in Zimbabwe and thousands of Zimbabweans taking to the street in solidarity with the military.

On Sunday, Zanu-PF central committee members sacked embattled President Robert Mugabe from the ruling party and immediately replaced him with axed VP Mnangagwa who will return as first secretary and president of the ruling party.

"If we are not going to have a repeat of the recent developments, Mnangagwa himself must learn the lesson that it is not the leadership of Zanu-PF which decrees. It is the people who rule.

"Never again should they be tempted to use force to curtail the sovereign rights of the people. If he has not learned this lesson from last week's events, then his presidency will inevitably fail," Ncube said.

The constitutional lawyer said although Mugabe had been left powerless after the four pillars that sustained his long rule were removed, it would not be easy to boot him out of office.

Ncube said Zanu-PF central committee members' decision to sack Mugabe from the ruling party has no bearing on him being the country's President, leaving his opponents with only the option of impeachment, a cumbersome process though.

"Mugabe derives his mandate directly from the people. For him to vacate his office, two or three things must happen. He either has to voluntarily resign. If you are a President, there are basically four pillars for one to stay in power. The first pillar is the support of your party. That pillar has been withdrawn," he said.

Ncube said Mugabe's second pillar of support — the securocrats which include the army, the Central Intelligence Organisation and the police — had also disappeared.

"That support has been withdrawn at the behest of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. The third pillar of the people has also been withdrawn. On Saturday, the people in their thousands showed Mugabe that they also want him to go. He has lost all the practical pillars which aided him all these years," Ncube said, but warned Mugabe would not go down without a fight.

"He might still argue that the central committee dismissed him unfairly because of the circumstances which we are in. His argument will be that the party intervened unfairly in a purely political process and, therefore, he might not recognise the process," he said.

Ncube said if Mugabe fails to resign, Parliament could invoke section 97 of the Constitution and initiate a process of removing him.

"If Mugabe fails to resign against all this pressure, Parliament can still invoke section 97 of Constitution.

"Joint Parliament can still sit and impeach him for either failing to properly discharge his duties or violating the Constitution."