HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe remains in political limbo after President Robert Mugabe declined to announce his much-anticipated resignation in a televised address, saying he'll preside over a ruling party conference next month.
Earlier Sunday, Zimbabwe's ruling party Central Committee fired Mugabe as party leader, saying it would begin impeachment proceedings if he didn't resign.
In his address, the 93-year-old Mugabe acknowledged what he said were "a whole range of concerns" of Zimbabweans about the chaotic state of the government and the economy, but he stopped short of what many people in the southern African nation were hoping for -- a statement that he was resigning after nearly four decades in power.
The once-formidable Mugabe is now a virtually powerless, isolated figure, making his continued incumbency all the more unusual and extending Zimbabwe's political limbo. He is largely confined to his private home by the military. And huge crowds poured into the streets of Harare, the capital, on Saturday to demand that he leave office.
Yet the president sought to project authority in his speech, which he delivered after shaking hands with security force commanders, one of whom leaned over a couple of times to help Mugabe find his place on the page he was reading.
Mugabe made no reference to the party moves against him, instead saying he would play a leading role in a party congress planned for Dec. 12-17.
"The congress is due in a few weeks from now," Mugabe said. "I will preside over its processes, which must not be prepossessed by any acts calculated to undermine it or compromise the outcomes in the eyes of the public."
Mugabe said the criticisms leveled against his government "were inescapable." But he suggested that he could make the necessary critics to satisfy his critics.
In a resolution, party leaders said Mugabe should be removed for taking the advice of "counterrevolutionaries and agents of neo-imperialism"; for mistreating his vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa; and for encouraging "factionalism."
It urged the "immediate and unconditional reinstatement" of Mnangagwa, at least until the national elections scheduled for next year.
On Sunday, the leaders put force behind their recommendations. The Central Committee did not spare Mugabe's second deputy president, Phelekezela Mphoko, who was also fired after serving as a vice president for three years.
Mugabe has discussed his possible resignation on two occasions with military commanders after they effectively took over the country on Tuesday, though the generals insisted they weren't conducting a coup. The commanders were troubled by his firing of his longtime deputy and the positioning of unpopular first lady Grace Mugabe to succeed him. He referred to the military's concerns about the state of Zimbabwe, where the economy has deteriorated amid factional battles within the ruling party.
"Whatever the pros and cons of the way they went about registering those concerns, I, as the president of Zimbabwe, as their commander in chief, do acknowledge the issues they have drawn my attention to, and do believe that these were raised in the spirit of honesty and out of deep and patriotic concern for the stability of our nation and for the welfare of our people," Mugabe said.
Cheering and singing
The deputy whom Mugabe fired, Mnangagwa, is positioned to become Zimbabwe's next leader after the party committee made him its nominee to take over from Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from white minority rule in 1980.
Committee members stood, cheered and sang after Mugabe was removed from his post as party leader. Meeting chairman Obert Mpofu referred to him as "outgoing president" and called it a "sad day" for Mugabe after his decades in power.
"He has been our leader for a long time, and we have all learned a great deal from him," Mpofu said. But Mugabe, he said, "surrounded himself with a wicked cabal."
The meeting replaced Mugabe as party chief with Mnangagwa and recalled the first lady as head of the women's league, in decisions set to be ratified at the party congress next month. The committee accused the first lady of "preaching hate, divisiveness and assuming roles and powers not delegated to the office."
Zimbabwean officials never revealed details of Mugabe's talks with the military, but the military appeared to favor a voluntary resignation to maintain a veneer of legality in the political transition. Mugabe, in turn, has likely used whatever leverage he has left to try to preserve his legacy or even protect himself and his family from possible prosecution.
Hours before Mugabe spoke on television, Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the country's liberation war veterans, said more protests could occur if the president does not step aside. He said he was concerned that the military could end up opening fire to protect Mugabe from protesters.
"We would expect that Mugabe would not have the prospect of the military shooting at people, trying to defend him," Mutsvangwa said. "The choice is his."
Mugabe's refusal to resign was "proof of his psychotic obsession with power," said Fadzayi Mahere, a lawyer and politician. "We must never put ourselves in this place as a nation ever again."
Now, Mugabe's critics are trying to sort out another way to unseat him. While the party's vote against him is a sign of its opposition, it does not have any immediate effect on Mugabe's position as president.
The party leaders have control only over their ranks and cannot influence the composition of Zimbabwe's government.
Impeachment proceedings in parliament appear the most likely way forward, but they could take weeks, according to Zimbabwean legal experts, and would leave the country with a power vacuum in the interim.
"This is not instant coffee," said Tendai Biti, a lawyer and opposition member. "We can't sacrifice our constitution to get what we want."
The chief whip of the ruling party, Lovemore Matuke, said impeachment proceedings would start Tuesday. After 37 years in power, Mugabe is now technically a leader without a party, his closest allies having been detained by the military.
It is possible that the military will now move to oust Mugabe by force, but so far its commanders have gone out of their way to accommodate him, still referring to him as their commander in chief. In a picture taken Sunday and released by the state-owned newspaper, a general saluted Mugabe while the president stood behind his desk, one of many signs that Zimbabwe was hardly undergoing a textbook coup.
The military commanders have appeared intent on giving the public impression that they are not conducting a coup. In its bylaws, the regional bloc of southern African nations includes strong language against coups.
Even though Mugabe's rule for years was above the law, many members of Zimbabwe's opposition have shown respect for the country's constitution.
"If the military had run roughshod, it would have lost the support of the people," Mahere said.
Until Sunday, Zimbabweans had united behind the military's actions, an unpredictable turn of events in a country where security forces have for years cracked down on political dissent.
"Zimbabwe's army is the voice of the people," one popular sign read.
By the time a protest march on Saturday was over, signs for Robert Mugabe Road had been trampled.
On Sunday morning, when members of the Central Committee arrived at the party headquarters in downtown Harare, they saw that a billboard bearing Mugabe's face had been vandalized, a hole sliced through the center.
Information for this article was contributed by Christopher Torchia and Farai Mutsaka of The Associated Press; by Brian Latham, Godfrey Marawanyika and Desmond Kumbuka of Bloomberg News; by Jeffrey Moyo of The New York Times; and by Kevin Sieff of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/20/2017