Robert Mugabe resigns after 37 years in power

Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, resigned Tuesday, a stunning end to nearly 40 years of leadership announced in parliament during impeachment proceedings against him.

Car horns were blasting across Harare, the capital, as Zimbabweans expressed their joy at Mugabe’s departure. People sang and danced in the streets.

The resignation came with Mugabe facing a possible swift removal by parliament through impeachment and after only a handful of Cabinet ministers appeared at a meeting he called Tuesday.

Parliament’s speaker stopped proceedings to say lawmakers had received a letter from the president indicating his resignation was effective immediately. Parliament erupted into cheers.

Mugabe had been facing immense pressure to quit after 37 years in power, during which he evolved as a leader in the fight against white minority rule to a person considered most responsible for such problems as a collapsing economy and human rights violations.

He had led the country since independence from Britain in 1980, first as prime minister and then as president. But he presided over a country struggling with unemployment of around 90%, a dire currency crisis and impoverished health and education sectors.

He managed to hang on for a week after Zimbabwe’s military took control, stripped him of executive power, confined him to his house and arrested his political allies, including a group of senior government ministers. But as the pressure mounted, he resigned.

When he came to power in 1980, Mugabe was seen as one of Africa’s great liberation heroes, and he still sees himself, one of the continent’s elder statesmen, with no political peers.

But ruthless and oppressive, his popularity declined when he sent security forces to arrest and beat up opposition activists during several violent, flawed elections.

As Mugabe prepared to install his unpopular wife, Grace, as vice president, many people across Zimbabwe, including ZANU-PF, feared she would succeed him.

Mugabe’s resignation illustrated the strength of Zimbabwe’s military security sector and its longtime role in the nation’s politics.