There were many of us who did not believe – whatever the reliable wire services were reporting – that Robert Mugabe was going to step down as Zimbabwe’s President yesterday.

Interestingly, we were invariably those who have met and spoken to the 93 year old.

Robert Mugabe is probably the most stubborn man I have met.

In the days when his political star shone bright, he could afford to be.

In our first interview in Maputo 41 years ago, he said his  Mozambique host Samora Machel has taught him the invaluable lesson to retain white farmers and entrepreneurs.

In power 15 years later, to ward off a threat from a burgeoning opposition he launched land grab that turned his country from the regional bread basked into the continental basket case.

At the Lancaster Conference in London in 1979 he had his host Lord Carrington, the British Foreign Secretary over a barrel.

Every time deadlock loomed, Mugabe would pack his papers and lead his team out.

He knew there could be no settlement without him.

On the few occasions I spoke to him in Harare, Mugabe knew he had the whip hand with overwhelming support from the military and the ruling party.

This enabled him to insult and belittle British premier Tony Blair, Botswana’s President Ian Khama and anyone else he perceived as a dangerous opponent.

Many years have passed and the glaring defiance has evidently dimmed.

He has repeatedly overplayed his hand. And, more fatally, he has allowed his South African-born typist wife to play hers.

Approaching his 94th birthday, the longest serving head-of-government on the planet has obviously not grasped the reality that his actions, and those of his wife, have stripped him of friends, allies and supporters.

Mugabe will be impeached this week.

The ruling ZANU PF will make sure of it.

So will Zimbabwe’s military, desperate to avoid having the African Union officially characterise its actions as a coup which would automatically red-card the country.

What Mugabe will not be be able to do is effect a dignified exit.

And he will find it infinitely more difficult to achieve the shelter he is seeking in Singapore for himself and his wife, who has been expelled from Zanu PF.

Some find this sad.

The majority, however, are saying what Zimbabweans finally dare to go to the streets to declare: good riddance.

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The South-African-born second wife of President Robert Mugabe allegedly assaulted a 20-year-old woman she  found in a Johannesburg hotel room with her sons on Sunday.

Mugabe himself has  arrived in South Africa to attend a regional summit. His wife is seeking diplomatic immunity.

With a plaster covering a wound that’s received 14 stitches on her forehead, 20-year-old model and nightclub hostess Gabriella Engels remained silent as members of a right-wing civil rights group Afriforum said they were representing her legally.

Afriforum CEO Kallie Kriel says Engels was offered a blank cheque from the Mugabe family to drop the charge she’s laid against the first lady of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Engels has rejected the offer.

Former top prosecutor Gerrie Nel – the man who led the State’s case against paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius for killing his girlfriend – has been engaged by Afriforum.

Nel says they’ll initiate a private prosecution if the State fails to act against Mugabe.

Police Minister Fikile Mbalule says police cannot arrest Grace Mugabe, who’s sheltering in a Johannesburg mansion,  until the Department of International Relations and Cooperation has ruled on her application for diplomatic immunity.

Meanwhile all borders are being closely watched to prevent the first lady  leaving Siyth Africa.

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The agenda of this 15-nation gathering will be overshadowed by the first lady of Zimbabwe, Grave Mugabe, seeking diplomatic immunity to avoid being charged with assault on a South African woman she found in her sons’ hotel room.

Leaders will concentrate on security concerns in Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo when the SADC organ on politics, defence and security meets in Pretoria.

The regional summit at the headquarters of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation will endorse their proposals.

However leaders will be forgiven for being preoccupied with their hosts’ conundrum.

Elsewhere at the vast DIRCO building, officials are deciding whether to put defending a South African citizen by prosecuting Grace Mugabe ahead of maintaining good relations with neighbouring  Zimbabwe by granting her diplomatic immunity.

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They spent today deliberating on security problems in Lesotho and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 37th SADC summit has an agenda concentrating on roping the private sector in to development plans for the region.

Inevitably, security issues will loom large as the 15 member states look at establishing a SADC peace fund.

But there’s no escaping the biggest story  this week. That’s the  assault charges hanging over the Zimbabwe’s first lady  Grace Mugabe for beating up a woman she found in her sons’ Johannesburg hotel room.

The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation is not commenting on reports that its granted diplomatic immunity to Mrs Mugabe to prevent her being prosecuted.

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