South Africa, World
While you were sleeping: 20 November
Mugabe clings to last vestiges of power, Germany struggles to form coalition, and Napoleon's leaf fetches a fat sum.
Monday, 20 November 2017
“If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself.”
Mikhail Bakunin
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe stunned his country by refusing to resign on Sunday night, despite being warned by his own ruling Zanu-PF party that he would be impeached if he did not do so.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
Mugabe remains defiant, stays in power
He was supposed to announce his resignation, making a final, dignified exit into retirement. Instead, on Sunday night Robert Mugabe appeared to read a statement prepared for him by the military, missing a few pages along the way. A few pages that may well have held the part where Mugabe’s non-resignation became a resignation. For a not-coup that’s a coup, an awkward public statement that lets Mugabe sip the presidential tea for one more morning became par for the course.
Despite the presidential shenanigans, ZANU-PF was not waiting for the military or Mugabe to tell them what to do. On Sunday the party announced it would be banning Grace Mugabe for life, and appointing Emmerson Mnangagwa as their new president. All those previously expelled under the Mugabe regime would have their sentences lifted, and Robert Mugabe would be given an ultimatum to resign or be impeached. If nothing else was resolved at the weekend, it’s that Zimbabweans loathe Grace Mugabe almost as much as avoiding calling a coup a coup.
Germany struggles to form coalition
Immigration and tax cuts appeared to be two major issues preventing Angela Merkel’s CDU from forming a coalition government with the FDP. Without said alliance, Germany’s government is plunged into effective uncertainty. With nobody in the driving seat, more space is created for the disturbingly militant AfD party in parliament.
Napoleonic golf leaf fetches princely sum
A gold laurel from Napoleon’s crown has sold for $735,000. The leaf went on auction in Paris on Sunday,
IN NUMBERS
$5
The fine for anyone who works at the Top Gun school in the United States who quotes the movie.
FACTS OF THE DAY
Today in 2007 Ian Smith died of a stroke in Cape Town.
Microwave popcorn is nothing special. You can have the same effect with normal popcorn kernels and a brown paper bag.
FEATURED ARTICLES
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A column by PETER FLACK
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