Mugabe too old to rule and must be impeached

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is now too old to rule the counter and his refusal to stand aside for someone younger should lead to his impeachment.

The Zimbabwe leader, who turned 92 years old on 21 February, has recently been showing clear signs of his inability to govern, and this is constitutionally just cause for him to be impeached by the country's parliament.

There have been several reports of his falling due to his old age, and other allegations of him collapsing.

It is also very clear from those that see him, or attend meetings with him, that he dozes off during important meetings.

In an address to parliament last year, Mugabe could not even tell that the speech he was reading was the same one he had read only a couple of days before.

It can not be denied that the current unprecedented fierce infighting in his ruling ZANU PF party is as a direct consequence of his inability to control his colleagues due to his old age.

Judging from his wife, Grace's tirades over the past two years, which made her sound more like a shebeen queen than the First Lady of a country, it is also clear that this was a direct result of Mugabe's failure to reign her in - as the party and country's president - due to his advanced age.

This infighting in ZANU PF has led to an accelerated deterioration of the county's economy, as senior party and government officials spend most if their time squabbling instead of attending to urgent government and national issues.

All these problems need to be resolved now, or else Zimbabwe will become a failed state beyond redemption.

Already, thousands of companies have closed up, millions are unemployed, and over 4 million people face starvation as a result of Mugabe's incapability to run government.

Urgent action is required, and this can only be in the form of impeachment of Mugabe.

This will be very possible if both the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and ZANU of work together.

They can start off by engaging in secret meetings, and then once an agreement has been reached, can bring the issue to parliament.

It is common knowledge - as seen by the infighting in ZANU PF - that even Mugabe's own party lieutenants are fed up with him and could easily work together with the opposition to impeach Mugabe.

Most people in both ZANU PF and the opposition agree that Mugabe has always been the major hurdle to Zimbabwe's success and that he must be removed from office immediately.

Already some of the most powerful people in ZANU PF are alleged to be in consultation with the Chinese government in a bid to have Mugabe removed - a fact that even Mugabe himself acknowledged recently.

ZANU PF even blames Mugabe for the sanctions imposed on its members by Western governments.

Recently, an expelled senior ZANU PF member alleged that Mugabe personally ordered the Zimbabwe National Army to terrorise people in 2008, when he lost the Presidential elections to MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe is clearly a brutal and cruel leader who has not only presided over the decay of Zimbabwe's economy, but has also personally ordered the massacring of tens of thousands of innocent Zimbabweans - from the genocide in the Matabeleland provinces in the 1980s to the murder if hundreds in the 2000s, and now the abduction, torturing and arbitrary arrest of any opposition voices - that has led to so many people seeking asylum in foreign countries.

Tens of thousands of families have been left without a parent because of Mugabe's murderous brutality.

This man must clearly be removed from office and be held accountable for all the crimes against humanity that he had committed against Zimbabweans.

He and his wife must also be brought to justice for the billions of dollars that his family have looted from the country's resources - with the recent reports of the disappearance of over US$15 billion from diamond sales.

Mugabe is now a fugitive from justice, and is hiding behind his Presidential office.

The sooner this men is removed from office and brought to justice, the better for Zimbabwe - whether through impeachment or a revolution by the people - but Mugabe must go, and go today.

~ Peace Marangwanda is a UK-based political commentator.