A DEFIANT Robert Mugabe has refused to stand down as the beleaguered leader is pictured for the first time since being placed under house arrest by the country’s military.

The 93-year-old dictator was pictured shaking hands with Zimbabwe’s military chief a day after the army seized power.

The pictures cast fresh confusion over predictions that the dictator’s 37-year rule had come to an end, Reuters reported.

Mugabe drove from his lavish “Blue Roof” Harare compound, where he and his wife Grace had been confined since troops took to the streets, to State House for the meeting with military chief Constantino Chiwenga and South African ministers sent to mediate the crisis.

The Herald Zimbabwe newspaper carried no reports of the outcome of the meeting, leaving the country’s 13 million people in the dark as to what was happening.

Mugabe insists he remains Zimbabwe’s only legitimate ruler however pressure was mounting on the former guerrilla to accept offers of a graceful exit.

The army may want Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, to go quietly and allow a smooth and bloodless transition to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice president Mugabe sacked last week triggering the political crisis.

The main goal of the generals is to prevent Mugabe from handing power to his wife Grace, 41 years his junior, who has built a following among the ruling party’s youth wing and appeared on the cusp of power after Mnangagwa was pushed out.

POLITICAL CRISIS GROWS

The drama began on Monday after the army warned it was preparing to step in to end the turmoil plaguing the ruling Zanu-PF party.

Two days later it followed through with its threat.

Analysts say the move appears to be the climax of a power struggle between liberation-era figures loyal to ousted vice president Mnangagwa and forces faithful to the First Lady who is seen as vying to succeed her 93-year-old husband.

In a dramatic televised statement on Wednesday night, the country’s military insisted it was not a coup.

However, reports out of the country suggest the events have all the hallmarks of exactly that.

‘THIS IS NOT A COUP’

The army said it has Mr Mugabe and his wife Grace in custody and said it was securing government offices and patrolling the capital’s streets.

Military supporters praised the move as a “bloodless correction” insisting Mugabe was still the country’s president.

In an address to the nation after taking control of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, an army spokesman said the military is targeting “criminals” around Mugabe.

He also sought to reassure the country that order will be restored.

Zimbabwe Major General Sibusiso Moyo read a statement at the ZBC broadcast studio in Harare where he said the country’s military appeared to be in control of the country.

“Their security is guaranteed,” the army spokesman said.

“We wish to make it abundantly clear that this is not a military takeover.

“We are only targeting criminals around (Mugabe) who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice.”

The army said as soon as its mission is accomplished the situation will return to normalcy.

The so-called “bloodless correction” prompted many on social media to question what the military was really up to and what was next.

Subtle indication there may be a coup: your news anchor is suddenly this guy, telling you it’s totally not a coup. pic.twitter.com/lKOX5uQGnW — Carl Fridh Kleberg (@FridhKleberg) November 15, 2017

#Zimbabwe army just broadcast that Mugabe & his family are "safe and sound and their security is guaranteed." Sounds like a #coup to me. (Video via @drDendere) pic.twitter.com/BTy8Wx5Bc3 — kim yi dionne (@dadakim) November 15, 2017

Great to see #Mugabe gone, but the effectively #coup change will not end happily for #Zimbabwe. Once the military has tasted power it is unlikely to forget the taste. https://t.co/CWLhph7PjA — Peter Mansfield (@Peterman43) November 15, 2017

Looks like a coup, sounds like a coup, smells like a coup its probably a coup but this one went to a private school.#Zimbabwe #Coup #army — #Blackness (@AshleyBlackDj) November 15, 2017

THE DICTATOR

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980 and helped lead his country to independence.

However his rule has been marked by brutal repression of dissent, corruption and election vote-rigging and violence.

Rising from Prime Minister to become president, Mugabe was initially well regarded domestically and internationally.

Once known as the breadbasket of Africa for its produce and one of the continent’s most prosperous nations, Mugabe has turned Zimbabwe into an economic basket case.

However that all began to change in 1993 when he instituted the Land Acquisition Act which saw the government force white farmers to give up their land for redistribution to black Zimbabweans, CNN reported.

That move sparked huge inflation and food shortages and plunged the country into turmoil.

With human rights in the spotlight and Mugabe’s grip on power tightening, the country descended even further into economic chaos.

In 2001, Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations after its elections were found to be flawed and was marred by violence.

Associate Director at OEF Research Curtis Bell said coups against such long-enduring leaders are extremely rare and at 93, Mugabe is nearly a decade older than any world leader to suffer a coup attempt going back to 1950.

The #Mugabe #coup in #Zimbabwe is truly exceptional. Of the nearly 500 coup attempts since 1950, only one was attempted against a longer-tenured leader. #Zimbabwecoup pic.twitter.com/tHlENAQxcT — Curtis Bell (@curtismbell) November 15, 2017

THE FIRST LADY

Mugabe sacked vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa last week, seemingly provoking the intervention of the military, which reportedly opposed Grace Mugabe’s emergence as the likely next president.

The 52-year-old South African-born politician has been dubbed “Gucci Grace” for her expensive shopping trips and fashion while many across her country went hungry.

Ambitious and expressing an interest in running for the top job, she also has been a fierce defender of her husband, declaring that he could run as a “corpse” in next year’s election and remain in power.

She had an affair with Mugabe that produced his first surviving children and married the president after his first wife died, the Associated Press reported.

Alex T Magaisa, a lecturer at Kent University and former aide to ex-Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told CNN she needed her husband to ensure she survived politically.

“Grace Mugabe without Robert Mugabe will not survive a single day politically,” he said.

“But as long as Mugabe is there, she will do what she wishes.”

THE CROCODILE

Emmerson Mnangagwa has been a loyal supporter of Mugabe for years and was considered his powerful right-hand man.

Known has “Ngwenya” or the “Crocodile” due to his survival instincts and fighting skills displayed in the country’s liberation wars, he has worked alongside Mugabe for four decades and was tipped to become the country’s next leader.

In a shock move, Mnangagwa was accused of “disloyalty, disrespect, deceitfulness and unreliability,” with Mugabe appearing to pave the way for his wife to succeed him.

The sacking led many in Zimbabwe to speculate the president’s wife was being positioned to succeed her husband and take up the post of vice president at a ruling party conference next month.

Mnangagwa fled the country amid claims he has been threatened.

While his exact whereabouts is yet to be confirmed, The Guardian reported he has since returned to Zimbabwe from South Africa, where he fled last week after being stripped of his office.

WHAT NOW?

The military has secured the airport, government offices, parliament and other key sites and the capital along with the rest of the country remains largely peaceful.

South African president Jacob Zuma said in a statement that he had spoken to Mugabe, who told him he was “confined” but “fine”.

If the Mugabes are forced into exile, Singapore and Malvasia could both be potential destinations given they own property there, The Guardian reported.

Meanwhile UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all sides in Zimbabwe to show “restraint”.

Mr Guterres is monitoring the situation and “appeals for calm, nonviolence and restraint,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

Human rights group Amnesty International called on the military to ensure the safety of the country’s people and allow the free flow of information.

Amnesty International’s Regional Director for Southern Africa Deprose Muchena said the military takeover should not be used as an excuse to undermine Zimbabwe’s international and regional human rights obligations and commitments.

“At this tense time, it is essential that the military ensure the safety and security of all people in Zimbabwe — regardless of their political allegiance — and refrain from any action that puts lives and human rights at risk,” he said.

“Military officials must uphold human rights, including the right to liberty, freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. The free flow of information — through the media and social media — must be guaranteed.”

- with wires

debra.killalea@news.com.au