Defiant Mugabe refuses to step down in TV speech

Robert Mugabe refused to step down during a national TV address surprising the nation who expected the 93-year-old president to resign.

During the speech, Mugabe said he would be presiding over the Congress which opens in a few weeks even as pressure from his own party and the Army reportedly made no impact on the Zimbabwe leader.

The (ruling ZANU-PF) party congress is due in a few weeks and I will preside over its processes," Mugabe said during the television address.

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"The operation I have alluded to did not amount to a threat to our well-cherished constitutional order nor did it challenge my authority as head of state, not even as commander-in-chief," he said.

"Whatever the pros and cons of how they (the army) went about their operation, I... do acknowledge their concerns," said Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's war veterans association which had backed the president during his years in power called for protests on Sundayas a stunned nation listened to Mugabe's speech, some even wept openly.

"We must learn to forgive and resolve contradictions, real or perceived, in a comradely Zimbabwean spirit," the president said.

"That speech has nothing to do with realities. We will go for impeachment and we are calling people back to the streets," Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the war veterans association, told AFP.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF brought back Emmerson Mnangagwa in the party declaring he was now the leader of the party.

Mugabe's wife Grace expelled from the party on Sunday. People danced openly on the streets in Harare but the crisis over Mugabe's defiant stand continued to stir the political climate in the African country.