'Mugabe was not removed by army,' claims Zanu-PF official

FORMER president Robert Mugabe was not removed from office by the army but he was pressured to resign by Zanu-PF, a senior party official has said.

Addressing scores of supporters at Nemamwa in Masvingo West on Saturday, Masvingo Senator Clemence Makwarimba said the former president had been surrounded by "rogue elements" in the form of members of the G40 cabal.

This, he said, prompted the army to launch Operation Restore Legacy but the party remained responsible in pushing Mugabe out of power.

"There are some who are lying that Mugabe was removed from power by the army. It is the Zanu-PF Central Committee, which dismissed him as leader of the party," said Makwarimba.

He said there was no way Mugabe was going to withstand the pressure that the people of Zimbabwe had mounted on him, led by war veterans.

"The war veterans called for a solidarity march and you saw that there was a sea of people in Harare in November last year. The people from all walks of life, even threatened to go to Mugabe's blue roof residence as his resignation took long.

"After Zanu-PF Central Committee had dismissed him from the party, we then decided to move a step further and remove him as Head of State. We then teamed up as parliamentarians from MDC-T and Zanu-PF to do the process of impeaching him," he said.

The former President, then wrote a letter to the Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda announcing his resignation and Parliament could not progress with the process of impeachment.

Makwarimba said a majority of legislators wanted Mugabe to leave office as soon as possible and they had unanimously agreed. He said the problem with Mugabe was that he had allowed his powers to be usurped by his wife, Grace, who was also dismissed from the party.

Speaking at the same event Zanu-PF provincial chairman Ezra Chadzamira called on women in the party not to behave like the former First Lady.

"Mugabe did a lot for us until he was surrounded by criminals in the form of G40 cabal members. His wife proved to be a destructive woman and I do not expect Zanu-PF women here to be like her. She wanted to impose herself as Vice President of this country then President later and you saw how our President Emmerson Mnangagwa was humiliated and subsequently fired from his post as Vice President," said Chadzamira.

He called for members to vote resoundingly for President Mnangagwa in the harmonised elections expected sometime in July this year.