Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has shocked the country by ending his address on national television without announcing his resignation, but he notes the political turmoil that led to his military house arrest and expulsion as ruling party leader.
“From tonight ... the nation at all levels gets refocused,” Mugabe says.
He also says “failures of the past” may have triggered anger “in some quarters, which he calls “quite understandable.”
He also notes that “intergenerational conflict must be resolved,” a reference to his apparent positioning of his unpopular 52-year-old wife to succeed him. Mugabe is 93 and had been backed by fellow veterans of the country’s liberation war, until they turned against him.