HARARE: Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe cried and
lamented “betrayal by his lieutenants” when he agreed to step down last
week under pressure from the military and his party after 37 years in
power, the Standard newspaper said in its Sunday edition.
President
Emmerson Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe loyalist, was sworn in on Friday
and attention is focused on whether he will name a broad-based
government or select figures from Mugabe’s era.
The
newspaper quoted sources within Mugabe’s inner circle as saying the
devout Catholic held a rosary as he told his close associates and a team
of negotiators at his “Blue House” Harare mansion that he was
resigning. He announced the decision as parliament heard a motion to
impeach him.
“He looked down and said ‘people were chameleons’,” one of the sources was quoted as saying.
The state-owned Sunday Mail
quoted Father Fidelis Mukonori, a Jesuit priest who is a close Mugabe
friend and mediated his resignation with the military, as saying
Mugabe’s face “just glowed” after he signed the resignation letter.
“So
we are not talking about a bitter man. I told him that it was good for
him to see someone running the country...,” Mukonori told the Sunday Mail.
Neither Father Mukonori nor Mugabe’s close aides were immediately available for comment.
