Welcome to the Countdown: Top 21 stories of 2017.
by WorldTribune Staff, November 19, 2017
Robert Mugabe, the only head of state in Zimbabwe’s history as an independent nation, has agreed to step down and will be replaced by the vice president who he had sacked.
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party removed Mugabe as its leader at a special meeting and replaced him with Vice President Emmerson “Crocodile” Mnangagwa, officials said.
Mugabe was an avowed Marxist when to assumed power which he steadfastly refused to relinquish during decades of despotic rule.
The 93-year-old Mugabe, the world’s oldest leader, broke down in tears before meeting army chiefs after being ousted by the Zanu-PF party on Nov. 19, reports said.
Mugabe had until noon local time on Nov. 20 to resign as president or impeachment proceedings would start, Zanu-PF said.
One of Mnangagwa’s top aides told MailOnline that “Mugabe is not a problem for us now. He has no power. We are divorcing him and he’s getting zero alimony.”
A Mugabe aide said that prior to meeting with army officials to discuss his exit Mugabe was “wailing profusely” and saying that he wished he could speak to his dead wife, Sally Mugabe, and his late son, Michael Nhamodzenyika, who died from cerebral malaria in 1966 at the age of three.
“He spends most of his time looking at an old photograph of Sally. It is terrible,” the aide said of Mugabe’s first wife, who died of kidney failure in 1992.
In 1996, Mugabe went on to marry his current wife, the widely unpopular “Gucci” Grace, who was also expelled from her role as head of the Zanu-PF Women’s League “forever.”
During the Zanu-PF party’s meeting, chairman Obert Mpofu told the committee that Mugabe’s wife “and close associates have taken advantage of his frail condition” to loot national resources.
The army threatened to let a mob lynch Mugabe if he didn’t stand down, MailOnline revealed on Nov. 18.
Following his resignation, Mugabe could live as an “elder statesman” in Zimbabwe, or travel to where he has property, including South Africa, Dubai or Singapore, the Daily Mail reported.
For complete list of the 2017 21 Greatest Hits at WorldTribune.com, Click here:
GREATEST HITS, 21: Report says DNC files were copied, not hacked, 5 days before murder of Seth Rich
GREATEST HITS, 20 — The McCain-Soros connection: How it started
GREATEST HITS, 18: Ten terrorists who took advantage of the porous U.S.-Mexico border
GREATEST HITS, 17: India defies missile-exporting China with cruise missile sale to Vietnam
GREATEST HITS, 16: The GOP is dead, and the ‘Uni-party’ rules
GREATEST HITS, 15: Mugabe breaks down in tears, steps down after 37 years ruling Zimbabwe
GREATEST HITS, 13: Church in revolt at pope’s ‘blessing’ of Islam’s expansion in Europe
GREATEST HITS, 12: Obama now heads a 501(c)(4) dedicated to keeping Trump in its crosshairs
GREATEST HITS, 11: Election software firm confirms Venezuela altered outcome by one million votes
GREATEST HITS, 10: Swedish police admit refugee crime wave is out of their control
GREATEST HITS, 9: Documents appear to implicate State Dept. in cover-up on Clinton emails
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