Mugabe should learn from dos Santos' retirement - SA opposition chief

Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, has been asked to take a leaf from the resignation of long serving Angolan leader, Eduardo dos Santos, and to quit the presidency.

The latest call comes from Mmusi Maimane, leader of South Africa’s leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA). His call comes weeks after that of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) made a similar call.

“Please could you pass on the same advise to President Robert Mugabe. Democratic change. Africa shall have a Post Liberation Movement era,” Maimane wrote in response to a tweet about dos Santos’s official resignation.

The Angolan leader on Friday confirmed that he was not going to run for the presidency. Even though he remains leader of the ruling MPLA party, the current Defence Minister, Joao Lourenco, will be on the party’s slot for the 2017 elections.

President Mugabe, Dos Santos of Angola will officially step down in August. The post of longest serving leader in SADC will be yours

— Zenaida Machado (@zenaidamz) February 3, 2017

With the exit of dos Santos, the longest serving leader in the Southern Africa region will be President Mugabe who has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1987. Eduardo dos Santos had been in power since 1979.

“As long as the party says continue, I continue…If I still have the energy, I still have the life, the blessings of God, I will continue,” Mugabe told party faithful at an event last November.

Mugabe turns 93 in February this year, and has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from white minority rule. The country goes to the polls in 2018 and the ruling Zanu-pf have stated that Mugabe will be its candidate.

The Southern African country’s currency is in poor shape and banks running out of cash, and the country is also feeling the pinch of a crippling drought.