Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has agreed to stand down
and his resignation letter has been drafted, CNN said on Monday, citing a
source familiar with his negotiations with the generals who seized power in
Harare last week.
Under the terms of the deal, Mugabe and his wife Grace
would be granted full immunity, CNN said. Two senior government sources told
Reuters late on Sunday that Mugabe had agreed to resign but did not know
details of his departure.
Generals in the military, who have seized power, have given
into many of Mugabe's demands, including full immunity for himself and his wife
Grace, and that he would keep his private properties.
According to the source, the aim of Sunday's televised
address -- in which Mugabe appeared to resist calls to step aside -- was to
ensure the veteran leader openly declared the military's actions to be
constitutional.
For the resignation to formally take place, however, a
letter must first be sent to the speaker of Parliament, added the source.
Mugabe had stunned the nation on Sunday when he refused to
say in a live televised address if he was stepping down.
His party had given Mugabe, who has been under house arrest
since the military seized power, 24 hours to resign or be impeached. On
Saturday, thousands of Zimbabweans had taken to the streets calling for him to
go.
But in a bizarre and rambling speech, Mugabe instead
insisted he was going nowhere, and that he would see his political party
Zanu-PF through its congress in a few weeks.
Zimbabweans who'd been glued to state television to watch
the speech live came out into the streets afterward, some in shock.
Harare resident Tina Madzimure called the speech "an
embarrassment really. He made a fool out of the generals."
"This man will go to his grave with Zimbabwe in his
hands," she told CNN.
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