Robert Mugabe has attended a university graduation ceremony on the outskirts of Harare in his first public appearance since a takeover by the Zimbabwean military.

Clad in academic gown and hat, the 93-year-old walked slowly in a procession on a red carpet to a podium as a marching band played. He was applauded as he announced the opening of the ceremony.

His appearance followed an army statement describing “significant progress”, which was broadcast on national television and published by state-run media on Friday morning. The statement appeared to have been aimed at quelling growing concerns that the military takeover could descend swiftly into chaos.

The appearance of the president in public is likely to fuel such worries, and reinforce growing pressure on the military to rapidly resolve the crisis. Adding to the sense of the bizarre, the wife of the general who detained him on Wednesday was among those upon whom Mugabe conferred a degree.

Mugabe has so far resisted pressure to resign and says the army’s intervention is illegal, according to sources close to the military.



The fact that the military allowed Mugabe to attend the graduation ceremony suggests it wants its intervention to be seen as primarily directed at the president’s wife, Grace Mugabe, and her associates.

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The statement said the army had “accounted for some of the criminals around [Robert Mugabe] in order to bring them to justice since they were committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country while others are still at large”.

At a forceful press conference on Friday, Chris Mutsvangwa, the leader of Zimbabwe’s influential war veterans, said the president would not be allowed to remain in power.

“Between now and tomorrow we are giving a very stark warning to Mugabe, his wife and anyone who wants to be associated with him that the game is up; finished,” Mutsvangwa said, to applause from the audience of journalists.

A march is being organised for Saturday to call for Mugabe to go, which Mutsvangwa urged Zimbabweans to attend.

“We are appealing to all Zimbabweans to come tomorrow for the biggest, largest turnout by the Zimbabwean population so we finish the job the army has started,” he said.

Since taking power, the military has arrested about a dozen senior officials and leading members of the G40, a faction of Zanu-PF who are loyal to the first lady.

Neither Grace Mugabe nor Jonathan Moyo, the higher education minister, was present at the graduation ceremony. Moyo is believed to be among those detained.

Grace Mugabe has not been seen since the takeover. Sources told the Guardian she was in her husband’s Harare residence when he was detained on Tuesday.

The takeover is thought to have been prompted in part by fears among the military and its allies within the ruling party of an imminent purge of rivals of the president’s wife, which would allow her to exercise greater power.

Timeline Zimbabwe timeline: the week that led to Mugabe's detention Show Hide Mugabe fires vice president Robert Mugabe fires his powerful vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, clearing the way for his wife, Grace, to succeed him as leader of Zimbabwe. Grace had accused 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a former intelligence chief, of being the “root cause of factionalism” in the ruling Zanu-PF party. Mnangagwa defiant Mnangagwa reportedly flees to South Africa, but vows to return to Zimbabwe to lead party members. The party "is not personal property for you and your wife to do as you please," Mnangagwa tells Mugabe in an angry five-page statement. Army chief issues warning Zimbabwe’s army chief demands a halt to the purge in Zanu-PF, and warns that the military could intervene. “We must remind those behind the current treacherous shenanigans that when it comes to matters of protecting our revolution, the military will not hesitate to step in,” General Constantino Chiwenga told a media conference attended by about 90 senior army officers. Army denies coup A convoy of tanks is seen moving on the outskirts of the Zimbabwean capital but the military denies a coup. In an overnight declaration on state television, they say Mugabe is safe and they are "only targeting criminals around him". Mugabe detained Military vehicles take control of the streets of Harare in the early hours. South Africa says Mugabe has told its president, Jacob Zuma, by telephone that he is under house arrest but is "fine".

Images released by the army on Thursday evening showed Robert Mugabe, 93, meeting the general who led the takeover.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years, looked relaxed and healthy in the images, taken during a meeting at the president’s state offices and residence in Harare on Thursday afternoon. The defence minister and two South African envoys also appeared in the pictures.

One picture showed Mugabe and Gen Constantino Chiwenga, the head of the armed forces, smiling as they shook hands. No details of the conversations held during the meeting were released.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mugabe (second right) with Gen Constantino Chiwenga (right) and South African envoys at State House in Harare. Photograph: ZBC/AFP/Getty Images

Friday’s statement from the military respectfully referred to Mugabe as “commander in chief”. However, there are signs that the patience of the military and its supporters within Zanu-PF is growing thin.

Leaders of the party are meeting on Friday to draft a resolution to dismiss Mugabe at the weekend and lay the ground for his impeachment next week if he refuses to stand down, a senior party source told Reuters.

“There is no going back,” the source said. “If he becomes stubborn, we will arrange for him to be fired on Sunday. When that is done, it’s impeachment on Tuesday.”

Before Friday’s appearance at the graduation ceremony, Mugabe had been confined to his personal residence in the capital’s affluent neighbourhood of Borrowdale since Tuesday night, when troops seized the state TV channel’s studios and other important sites.

South African envoys are in Harare to help with negotiations and decide the terms of Mugabe’s resignation. South Africa, the biggest regional power, called an emergency meeting of the Southern African Development Community regional bloc in Botswana. The meeting was inconclusive, though a final statement condemned changes of government through unconstitutional means.

Play Video 3:52 Robert Mugabe: end of an era - video profile

Many Zimbabweans have cautiously welcomed the military move and the streets were quiet again on Friday, but there are growing public demands for those who led the takeover to lay out their plans.

The army has said the takeover was a temporary measure to target “criminals” around Mugabe, resolving a succession battle that has pitted Grace Mugabe against the former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa was reported to have returned to Zimbabwe on Tuesday evening from South Africa, where he fled last week after being stripped of his office by the president in an apparent attempt to clear Grace Mugabe’s path to power.

Profile Who is Emmerson Mnangagwa? Show Hide Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as president of Zimbabwe on 24 November, capping a dramatic few weeks that began when he was sacked as vice-president by Robert Mugabe on 6 November. Mnangagwa, a 75-year-old former intelligence chief, had been locked in a battle with the first lady, Grace Mugabe, to succeed her husband as president. His sacking – an attempt to clear Grace's path to power - was a tactical error that triggered a military takeover, Mugabe's impeachment by parliament, and his resignation. Mnangagwa has strong support within the security establishment and among veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s guerrilla war, when he earned the nickname “the crocodile”.

Despite allegations about his role in atrocities in the 1980s, much of the international community had long seen him as being the most likely figure in Zimbabwe to guarantee a stable transition and implement economic reforms. Photograph: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP

Opposition officials told the Guardian they believed there would eventually be a deal allowing Mnangagwa to be appointed president, with Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), serving as prime minister in a transitional government of three to five years.



The outgoing president and his family would be offered protection in his retirement, though Grace Mugabe was expected to leave Zimbabwe. Singapore and Malaysia, where the Mugabes own property, are potential destinations.

Profile Who is Grace Mugabe and why is she controversial? Show Hide Background Grace Mugabe is the 52-year-old first lady of Zimbabwe. Born in South Africa, she married Robert Mugabe, 40 years her senior, in 1996. Initially struggling to emerge from the shadows of the president’s popular first wife, Sally, who died in 1992, Mugabe appeared by her husband’s side for official functions but rarely got involved in politics herself, focusing publicly on her charity work while gaining a reputation for legendary shopping expeditions. Controversies In 2009 a British photographer alleged that she punched him repeatedly in the face when he tried to take a picture of her in Hong Kong. She has since been implicated in several incidents outside Zimbabwe: in Singapore, in Malaysia and most recently in South Africa, where she allegedly assaulted a model in August. Political ambitions The unveiling of Grace Mugabe as a potential successor to her husband began in 2014, when she became head of the ruling party’s women’s league and the state propaganda machine began talking up her political acumen. Before the events of 14 November her path to power had received a boost when her main rival, the vice-president , Emmerson Mnangagwa, was fired on 6 November. The feud between Mugabe and Mnangagwa had been bitter – in October she publicly denied poisoning him after he fell ill at a rally in August. Photograph: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP

Members of the G40 who were detained during the takeover would be prosecuted in accordance with the law, the officials said.

There was no independent confirmation of the opposition claims, which one analyst described as optimistic, though negotiations are clearly taking place between multiple political actors.

“The army want him [Mugabe] to relinquish power but there are some sticking points,” said Knox Chitiyo, an expert on Zimbabwe at the Chatham House thinktank in London. “This is a complete shock to him. He did not see himself leaving office this way.”



Other possibilities are Mugabe staying on as president until a Zanu-PF conference scheduled for December, or even until elections due in mid-2018.

The fragmented opposition has not publicly condemned the military move, but has repeatedly called for a swift transition to democracy.