All that happened in Zimbabwe - Rally

Saturday, November 18: The LatestArmy says Mugabe removal a 'journey'

The process to remove Mugabe from power is a “journey” and will take more than “one day”, an army general told thousands of protesters trying to march to the State House in Harare.

Major General Sibusiso Moyo commended the protesters for taking part in the largest anti-Mugabe demonstration the southern African country has ever seen and asked them to go home.

“The operation we are doing together as a country is a journey, we cannot go around the mountain in one day, but through your support we have covered a great distance," Moyo told the crowd in the capital.

Protesters who appeared to be in high spirit were encouraged by the general’s words.

"Although we didn't make it to State House, we made it here to this point and just the amount of people, the different backgrounds and races that came out today showed that we all agreed today … We all agreed today that he must go," Anesu Dawa, who took part in the march, told Al Jazeera.

Army tells Harare protesters to disperse

Al Jazeera's Haru Mutasa, reporting from a mass anti-Mugabe rally in Harare, says crowds are dispersing after being instructed to do so by the army.

"We will tell you when something is announced, but go home for now," the military told the protesters, according to Mutasa. 

"People are leaving; they now are going to another venue, the Zimbabwe Grounds, where there is a celebration and people anticipating the announcement that Mugabe will resign," added our correspondent.

"There is no confirmation whether that will happen, and no idea when it will happen, if it does happen, but a lot people are saying that there is a definite feeling in the country that change is really coming."

Mugabe 'ready to die for what is correct'

Zimbabwe's president and his wife, Grace, are "ready to die for what is correct" and have no intention of stepping down in order to legitimise this week's military coup, his nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, has told Reuters news agency.

Speaking from a secret location in South Africa, Zhuwao said on Saturday that Mugabe had hardly slept since the military seized power on Wednesday but his health was otherwise "good".

'We are president, not monarchs,' Khama tells Mugabe

Ian Khama, the president of Botswana, has urged Mugabe to step down, saying the Zimbabwean leader has no regional diplomatic support.

"I don't think anyone should be president for that amount of time," Khama told Reuters news agency, referring to Mugabe's 37 years in power.

"We are presidents. We are not monarchs. It's just common sense," added Khama.

South African President Zuma: Region committed to supporting people of Zimbabwe

As thousands gather in Zimbabwe to protest against President Robert Mugabe, South African President Jacob Zuma - the 93-year-old leader's close ally - said the region supports "the people of Zimbabwe".

Regional dignitaries from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are expected to meet on Sunday in an extraordinary session to discuss the Zimbabwe situation in neighbouring Botswana, where the SADC headquarters is located.

Zuma chairs the SADC.

'He has to go'

Florence Mguni, a 59-year-old who went to train in Mozambique as a liberation fighter at the age of 15, travelled overnight from Bulawayo to Harare in hope of witnessing Mugabe's departure. "We went to fight in the war, I was taught how to hold a gun as a young girl but today Zimbabwe is free and I am poor. I'm a widow and my children aren't in school because I can’t always afford to pay their fees," she said.

Tapiwa Magidi, a 32-year-old geologist, said Mugabe should resign because the 93-year-old leader was not serving young people. "We are a lost generation, most of the young people in this country were born after independence but we are now grown and we don't have much," he told Al Jazeera. "We can’t get jobs, we have to live at home with our parents and we can't even afford to get married.

Tapiwa Tavaziva, a 32-year-old financial adviser who had left Zimbabwe for the US, said: "I spent 12 years out of this country because of Mugabe and the situation in this country. He's been responsible for so many things that have happened to people in their personal lives, he broken up so many homes, family structures are broken and we don't have what we used to because he [Mugabe] loves power. He has to go."