Zimbabwe's opposition is calling for President Robert Mugabe to resign, saying he is no longer fit for office. This comes one day after the 91-year-old president read the wrong speech to parliament.
The president's office issued an apology Tuesday after delivering a speech he had already read in parliament three weeks before.
His office said the president would deliver the correct speech to lawmakers Wednesday, but Zimbabwe’s main opposition party said the mistake could not be overlooked so easily.
“With respect to our president; at the good ripe age of 91, he has seen better days," remarked Obert Gutu, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"I think it is now clear that he is no longer fit for purpose. In fact, if Zimbabwe was a democracy, parliament was supposed to go and invoke section 96 of the constitution of Zimbabwe. He should actually be impeached. He is now clearly unable to discharge his duties as head of state," he told reporters Wednesday.
Opposition MPs are also demanding the government explain how the president came to read the wrong speech.
In the end, Mugabe did not come to parliament Wednesday. Instead, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa came and asked lawmakers to withdraw the wrong speech from the official record and replace it with the correct one.
There is virtually no chance the president will heed the calls to step down; Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron hand since the country won independence from Great Britain, 35 years ago.
