Harare, the Capital of Zimbabwe is still on edge a day after the country’s longtime ruler Robert Mugabe was edged out of power by the military.
Mr. Mugabe still under house arrest is resisting pressure to resign sources familiar with developments in the country has informed the BBC.
A Roman Catholic priest known to him for years, Father Fidelis Mukonori, is trying to mediate a deal on his future with the military, according to sources familiar with events in the country.
South African Defence Minister Nosiviwe Maphisa-Nqakula and State Security Minister Bongani Bongo are meeting Mr. Mugabe and the county’s military hierarchy on behalf of The South African Development Community(SADC).
The head of the African Union, Guinean President Alpha Conde, also added to the uncertainty when he said the AU “will in no case accept” the military seizure of power. He said he was “inviting the army to return to its barracks and return to constitutional order”.
Sticking points are said to include what role Mr. Mnangagwa will play and the security of Mr. Mugabe’s family.
Zanu-PF’s UK representative, Nick Mangwana, has suggested that Mr. Mugabe could remain nominally in power until the party congress in December when Mr. Mnangagwa would be formally installed as party and national leader.
Reuters news agency is quoting a source as saying Mr. Mugabe’s wife Grace is in Mr. Mugabe’s compound, along with senior figures from the “Generation-40” group supportive of the first lady – cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere.
Mrs. Mugabe had previously been thought to have fled to Namibia.
Why the Military struck…
President Mugabe, 93, has been in control of Zimbabwe since it threw off white minority rule in 1980.
However, the power struggle over who might succeed him, between his wife Grace Mugabe and her rival former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has split the ruling Zanu-PF party in recent months.
Last week, Mr. Mugabe came down in favour of his wife, sacking Mr. Mnangagwa, a veteran of Zimbabwe’s anti-colonial struggle.
That proved too much for military leaders, who seized control of the country on Wednesday.
Reports suggest that the military are now trying to quash the threat posed by Mrs. Mugabe and her allies.
On Wednesday, one of her key allies, Zanu-PF youth wing leader Kudzai Chipanga, made a televised apology for criticising the head of the army as a war of words raged prior to the military takeover.
Mr. Chipanga is thought to be in army custody but insisted his statement was voluntary.
Local media reports say a number of other senior members of the “Generation-40” group have also been detained.
One Zimbabwean opposition leader, Tendai Biti, told the BBC he wanted to see a transitional authority in place.
“It is urgent that we go back to democracy,” he said. “It is urgent that we go back to legitimacy but we need a transitional period and I think, I hope, that dialogue can now be opened between the army and Zimbabweans.”
He later told Reuters that he would join a national unity government if Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change-Tsvangirai (MDC-T) party, was also in it. Mr. Tsvangirai, a long-time political opposition figure in Zimbabwe, has been abroad receiving treatment for cancer.
What do the South Africans want to achieve?
South Africa is hosting millions of Zimbabweans who fled after the country’s economy crashed in 2008. It has a special interest in seeing stability restored.
The Sadc mission will be pushing for a democratic solution. The body, which represents 16 countries, does not support coup-led governments as this would set a dangerous precedent in the largely peaceful region, says the BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg.
A Sadc emergency meeting is scheduled to take place in neighbouring Botswana on Thursday to try to help find a resolution.
With agency reports