Robert Mugabe’s most likely successor, the ousted vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, has broken more than a week of silence to call for the 93-year-old leader to “accept the will of the people” and step down immediately.

Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party is expected to begin impeachment proceedings in parliament on Tuesday in an attempt to strip Mugabe of the presidency, as the political crisis triggered by a military takeover moves into a second week. Mugabe is accused of allowing his wife, Grace Mugabe, to “usurp constitutional power”.

The legal basis for impeachment has been drawn up by Zanu-PF, which chose Mnangagwa to replace Mugabe as its leader at the weekend.

Botswana’s president Ian Khama published an open letter on Tuesday also urging Mugabe to step down, asking him to “do the honourable thing by voluntarily relinquishing power.”

Zimbabwe’s political and military establishment appears wary of forcing Mugabe from office because of the censure and sanctions a coup can trigger. Having failed to persuade him to step aside, they are focused on attempts to remove him from power through constitutional measures.

“I am aware that parliament intends to impeach the president,” Mnangagwa said, throwing his weight behind the attempt to end Mugabe’s rule.



“Parliament is the ultimate expression of the will of the people outside an election and in my view is expressing national sentiment by implementing the impeachment,” he said.



Profile Who is Emmerson Mnangagwa? Show 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

Mnangagwa, a veteran of the liberation war and for decades Mugabe’s right-hand man, fled into exile earlier this month after being ousted from his position in government and Zanu-PF by a faction allied to the president’s wife.

His supporters are widely believed to be behind the military’s takeover of power. Zanu-PF has named him as the party’s new leader and nominee to take over as president if Mugabe steps down or is impeached.

In a written statement, which gave no clue as to his whereabouts, Mnangagwa said he had fled Zimbabwe after he was warned by security officials that “plans were underfoot to eliminate me”.

Mnangagwa said he had spoken to Mugabe, and told him he needed to resign because huge demonstrations in Harare on Saturday, and the party vote against him, showed he no longer had a popular mandate.

Vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, pictured in 2016. Photograph: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP

“Mugabe has always said that if the people don’t want him he will leave office, now that they have spoken he must now accept the will of the people and resign,” the statement said.



Mnangagwa also made what appeared to be an appeal to opposition politicians and their supporters.



Laying out his vision for a “new Zimbabwe”, Mnangagwa said it was a national, not a party political project. “In that new Zimbabwe it is important for everyone to join hands so that we rebuild this nation to its full glory. This is not a job for Zanu-PF alone but for all people of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Mnangagwa, who is known as “the Crocodile” from his time fighting in the country’s liberation wars, orchestrated repeated crackdowns on Zimbabwe’s opposition under Mugabe’s rule. He said he would return home “as soon as the right conditions for security and stability prevail”, but did not give any further details of when that might be.

Mugabe had been given a deadline of noon local time on Monday to resign as head of state or face impeachment but he ignored the deadline and instead called a cabinet meeting for 9am on Tuesday. A notice from his chief secretary said all ministers should attend.

Lovemore Matuke, a senior Zanu-PF official, told Reuters that “all” ministers heeded a party directive to skip the cabinet meeting and instead attend a party caucus to discuss impeaching Mugabe on Tuesday morning.

Robert Mugabe addresses the nation on 19 November. Photograph: The Herald Handout/EPA

A draft impeachment motion published by Zanu-PF said the ageing leader was a “source of instability” who had shown disrespect for the rule of law and was to blame for an unprecedented economic tailspin over the past 15 years.

It also said that at his “advanced age” Mugabe no longer had the physical capacity to run the government.

Although Zanu-PF has the required two-thirds majority in parliament necessary to remove Mugabe, the arrest or flight of some MPs may mean the support of opposition parties is needed for the impeachment motion to pass.

Lawmakers from Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), will hold a meeting on Tuesday to decide whether to join Zanu-PF to impeach Mugabe, according to officials.

David Coltart, the MDC’s secretary for legal affairs, said he supported the move in principle. “I have long felt he should have been impeached for what he has done of the last decades and for how he has violated the constitution,” he said.

Mugabe stunned the southern African country by failing to resign as expected in a televised speech on Sunday night. Instead, his rambling address offered no substantial concessions to the tens of thousands of people who have marched calling for his resignation, though it did exonerate the army commanders who led the military takeover last week.

The autocrat called for compatriots to avoid “bitterness or revengefulness, which would not make us any better … Zimbabweans”, and said he would preside over a special Zanu-PF congress scheduled for next month.

It is unclear how long the procedure to impeach the president might take but it is likely to last several days. Both houses of the Zimbabwean parliament will have to sit at least twice, with the impeachment motion also going to a committee of senators. If it is passed, Mugabe, who as president is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, would be reduced to the status of any other citizen.

Grace Mugabe, 52, 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 and had not moved since.

