Robert Mugabe was still clinging to power on Sunday evening, delivering a televised address to the people of Zimbabwe in which he acknowledged the difficulties facing their country but offered so sign he was preparing to resign.
Speculation swirled all afternoon that he would use the speech to announce he was leaving office after the ruling Zanu-PF party fired him as its leader following 37 years in charge.
Instead, flanked by army officers, he promised to preside over the party’s congress in December and said it was important to “resolve contradictions in a comradely spirit”.
Earlier Zanu-PF had given the 93-year-old less than 24 hours to quit as head of state or face impeachment, an attempt to secure a peaceful end to his tenure after a de facto coup.
Mr Mugabe was replaced as leader by his former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mr Mugabe on Sunday met with the army commander who put him under house arrest, while the ruling party opened an emergency meeting to recall the world’s oldest head of state as its leader.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party Central Committee members stood and cheered at the decision.
Obert Mpofu, minister of home affairs, said that they met with “a heavy heart” because Mr Mugabe, 93, had served the country and contributed “many memorable achievements.”
He added that Mr Mugabe’s wife “and close associates have taken advantage of his frail condition” to loot national resources.
His wife Grace Mugabe was also expelled from the party and banned for life.
She, along with several cabinet ministers, is set to be prosecuted, a Zanu-PF delegate said.