FILE - In this Saturday, Feb, 27, 2016, file photo, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe gestures as he delivers his speech during celebrations to mark his 92nd birthday celebrations in Masvingo about 300 kilometres south of Harare. "Do you want me to punch you to the floor to realize I am still there?" The speaker was not a boxer trash-talking before a fight. It was Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who is 92 and known for pugnacious comments. This one, to an interviewer from state TV, was in response to a question about retirement plans and who would succeed him. "Why 'successor' when I am still there?" Mugabe said in the interview aired Thursday night. "Why do you want a successor?" (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, File)
BY Oluseyi Awojulugbe
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has tendered his resignation.
The 93-year-old president submitted his resignation letter to the speaker of the parliament during a session to impeach him.
Jacob Mudenda, speaker of the parliament, announced Mugabe’s resignation and suspended the impeachment procedure.
The only president the country has known since independence in 1980 stepped down exactly a week after the military seized power.
His decision to sack his deputy in order to pave the way for the emergence of his wife triggered the action of the military.
Mugabe had initially refused to accede to the request for him to step down.
His party had given him 24 hours to quit or be impeached but he carried on even after the time elapsed.
In a bizarre and rambling speech, Mugabe insisted he was going nowhere, and that he would see his political party Zanu-PF through its congress in a few weeks.
People had trooped to the streets to demand the end of his tenure.
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