good afternoon. welcome to special coverage of the crisis in zimbabwe. i am alive in the capital, harare with breaking news. the leadership of zanu—pf, the ruling party, have dismissed robert mugabe as their leader after 37 yea rs. mugabe as their leader after 37 years. an extraordinary development, an extraordinary humiliation for him to effectively be sacked as the leader of the party, and his wife, grace mugabe, also dismissed from her position within zanu—pf as the leader of the women's league, sacked because the party accused her of hate speech and divisiveness. robert mugabe is still president of this

country. he hasn't yet agreed to resign. he is under pressure to do that. he is having more negotiations with the military today and he has been given a deadline by zanu—pf‘s central committee, an extraordinary deadline of midday tomorrow, local time. if he has not resigned by them, zanu—pf say he will face impeachment proceedings in the parliament behind me. two chambers of parliament have to agree with the majority of two thirds in each chamber to impeach him. if they do, he will no longer be president of this country. another day of humiliation for robert mugabe. from harare, our correspondent shingai nyoka reports. senior military commanders have met president robert mugabe to further pressure him to step down from government, as his own party held a historic meeting to dismiss him. it's a humiliating end for the decorated war hero and the party's longest serving leader. our people, colleagues, are demanding from us gathered here to show leadership and to give effect to their demands

for the recall of the president and first secretary of zanu—pf, comrade rg mugabe, from his position in the party and government. applause bruising infighting for power has taken its toll — an empty top table, no robert mugabe and no first lady. this is the beginning of the end of an era. president robert mugabe will no longer head the party he has led for more than a0 years. the question now is who will take his place? the central committee has sacked not only the president but also the first lady as the leader of the women's wing, but she still remains the head of government. parliament are expected to impeach him if he refuses to resign. war veterans who fought alongside him in the war of liberation have warned of an undignified exit if he digs in. we're hoping that by 12 o'clock that they resume their negotiations,

that he gives in to the fact he is going to tender his resignation and leave. in the event he doesn't, we take over from where the people left yesterday. the vice president he sacked for disloyalty, emmerson mnangagwa, has been recalled to lead the party. it's an extraordinary end for a man whose name has been synonymous not only with zimbabwe, but also this party, since 1975. after that dramatic news that robert mugabe has been sacked as the leader of his own party, zanu—pf after 37 yea rs, of his own party, zanu—pf after 37 years , we of his own party, zanu—pf after 37 yea rs, we have of his own party, zanu—pf after 37 years, we have just received these pictures of mr mugabe holding negotiations with the military here, the military who took control in harare last wednesday. they had denied all along it has been a military coup d'etat, but they are

negotiating still with mr mugabe, trying to persuade him to resign of his own free will, rather than being forced out of office. you can see shaking hands, the military really keen to emphasise that this is not an old—fashioned keen to emphasise that this is not an old —fashioned african keen to emphasise that this is not an old—fashioned african coup, where they just depose the an old—fashioned african coup, where theyjust depose the leader. they wa nt theyjust depose the leader. they want him either to resign with dignity of his own volition, that their preferred solution, but if he won't go we have heard there is a deadline set by his own political party, zanu—pf. if he does not resigned by midday tomorrow, he will be impeached. one way or another, it looks like robert mugabe has very little time left now as president of zimbabwe, although he is still technically that. what he is no longer is a party leader of zanu—pf. that news was announced by patrick chinamasa, a leading member of zanu—pf. comrade rg mugabe is hereby recalled from the position of president of zanu—pf forthwith.

cheering and applause further, the resolution is that comrade rg mugabe should resign forthwith from his position as president and head of state and government of the republic of zimbabwe. and if a resignation has not been tendered by midday tomorrow,

the 20th of november 2017, the zanu—pf chief whip is ordered to institute proceedings for the recall of the president in terms of section 97 of the constitution of zimbabwe. cheering and applause that was patrick chinamasa of the ruling zanu—pf party, announcing the historic news, almost unthinkable even a short time ago, that zanu—pf would just turn on their leader, robert mugabe, like this. once so slavishly loyal to him, just sucking him unceremoniously and dumping him as their party leader. patrick chinamasa, who you just saw, also announcing —— sacking him. the removal of a number of officials was also announced. members of the

cabal, namely... grace mugabe. walter nzembi... edu malinge... that they be expelled

from the party. patrick chinamasa, from zanu—pf, explaining the dismissal of all of those senior party officials, particularly those around grace mugabe, such a hated figure in zimbabwe. really the catalyst for the whole crisis. andrew harding was at the central committee meeting of zanu—pf, which has made history today by sacking robert mugabe as its leader. the congress is just ending. there has been singing and dancing, there has also been, particularly from some of the older ministers i have been speaking to, who have known president mugabe over the years, a certain sorrow, a wish that it could have been otherwise, that he had resigned when he have the opportunity, that he had not pushed his wife, grace, onto the party.

as you say, this is the party that, two weeks ago, was doing anything president mugabe wanted. when he asked them to get rid of his deputy, mnangagwa, they did so immediately. they expelled him from the party. he fled the country for his life. today, in an act of extraordinary political expediency and ruthlessness, they have turned on him. notjust saying you are no longer the president of the party, but kicking his wife out of the party for good and giving him an ultimatum, an extraordinary ultimatum, saying if you are not gone as president of the country by tomorrow, noon, we will impeach you. does that look like the most likely course of action? so far, he has been talking to the army for several

days. he spoke to them on thursday, talking to them again today. he has shown no signs whatsoever, it seems, of willingly resigning his position. he is going to have to be forced out by impeachment? that is the way it looks at the moment. if he has an appetite for more humiliation, as it seems, then perhaps he will take it to the very end. it is remarkable that a story here that, in some ways, is about constitutions, about legality, about party politics, really boils down to the character, the human emotions of one elderly man who lost his nerve, he wanted his wife to take over because he felt perhaps he could not trust anybody else and who is digging in, talking about the constitution, we understand, talking about the letter of the law, saying it was a coup, saying he won't go. yet the reality of zimbabwe, the reality of the world around him has changed

utterly. he is grasping at straws that don't even exist. zanu-pf said they want to amend the constitution to re m ove they want to amend the constitution to remove the notion of one centre of power. what do you think they mean by that? do they effectively mean by that? do they effectively mean this country cannot be a dictatorship any more? what you was seeing our zanu—pf very sensibly positioning itself for elections next year. it is a party that does not want to lose power. it has elected as president a rough guide, a man with a brutal reputation as an enforcer for a man with a brutal reputation as an enforcerfor president a man with a brutal reputation as an enforcer for president mugabe going back years. it is a bear looking forward to the elections. one i spoke to patrick chinamasa, i said,

i remember talking to you about the opposition mdc a few years ago and whether they could win an election. he said, they will not be allowed to, we will not let them. i said, has anything changed ? to, we will not let them. i said, has anything changed? he said, yes, we still want to win elections but we still want to win elections but we will not have one man in charge for the next 37 years. how much has zanu—pf changed? we will have to see. already, people are beginning to write the political obituary of robert mugabe, although he is still technically president of the country for a few more hours or days at least. he was a man who led the liberation struggle against white minority rule, the independence struggle. he was welcomed back here in 1980 as struggle. he was welcomed back here in1980 asa struggle. he was welcomed back here in 1980 as a conquering, liberating hero. he did undoubtedly have achievements in terms of education, literacy and health care in zimbabwe. he also has a record of

dictatorship, of brutality, of repression and economic mismanagement that left the country, one stage, with a hyper inflation rate of billions of percent. milton nkosi has this assessment. i, robert gabriel mugabe... robert gabriel mugabe was a revolutionary leader who fought in the liberation struggle against white minority rule. ..and beartrue allegiance to zimbabwe... his tight grip on power earned him the title of being the oldest head of state in the world. the 93—year—old leader has been in power since zimba bwe's independence in 1980. he has continued his life as an international statesman despite a diminishing reputation, as zimbabwe's economy crumbled amid corruption and violence. mugabe's rise to power began in 1979 when the lancaster house agreement ended white minority rule. at first, he protected minority rights. but in the 2000s he changed tack —

he led a chaotic land reform programme, including redistributing land from white farmers without compensation. the country's economy collapsed with runaway inflation figures. the central bank printed money on a massive scale. supermarket shelves were empty. a loaf of bread would cost you trillions to buy. mugabe's misrule prompted widespread protests. that was the birth of the opposition mdc, led by trade unionist morgan tsvangirai, who later entered into a power—sharing agreement with mugabe, following a disputed election. the economic climate was unbearable, something it is still struggling to recover from. millions of zimbabweans crossed the border into neighbouring south africa, looking for a better life. he tried to pave the way

for his wife, grace mugabe, to be his successor. the army found that unacceptable, saying that "this is not a dynasty". milton nkosi, bbc news, south africa. milton nkosi, there. we canjoin him now injairus byrd. give us your assessment of... i think you met robert mugabe. how could he be feeling? he could scarcely believe that he is not only on the brink of losing the presidency of this country that he has ruled for 37 yea rs, country that he has ruled for 37 years, but he has been sacked, unceremoniously, as leader of zanu—pf, his own party? unceremoniously, as leader of zanu-pf, his own party? this must be deeply painfulfor zanu-pf, his own party? this must be deeply painful for robert mugabe. he only had one thing in mind. he

wa nted only had one thing in mind. he wanted to die in office. now this plan is crumbling right before his eyes. robert mugabe loved leadership. one of his oldest comrades told me once that when they grew up during their childhood days, that when they played games, if they played the church robert mugabe loved leadership so much that he had to be the bishop. this is the man who has now been taken away from the position of leadership. this has been a long time coming because many of zimbabwe ends have been calling for this day to come. there are millions of zimbabweans here in south africa who fled their own country of birth looking for better economic opportunities because there was an economic collapse. remember, zimbabwe's was an economic collapse. remember, zimba bwe's own unemployment was an economic collapse. remember, zimbabwe's own unemployment rate is hovering above 90%. so, many people,

both from this side of the river and from across there, are celebrating the departure of robert mugabe, who they still respect, by the way, for liberating them from white minority rule. that is why they wanted to handle this as delicately as possible. there was no muammar gaddafi moment. you could ask why, it is because zimbabweans still on robert mugabe for the conclusion he made into their own liberation from white minority rule. —— they still honour robert mugabe for the contribution he made to their liberation from white minority rule. was his big mistake to try to pass on power to his wife, who is such a hated figure in the country? indeed, the sequence of events that we have witnessed in the last few days, it

was actually triggered by the decision of sacking emerson mnangagwa, so grace mugabe would ta ke mnangagwa, so grace mugabe would take over from him mnangagwa, so grace mugabe would take overfrom him and mnangagwa, so grace mugabe would take over from him and eventually the president of zimbabwe. that is what many veterans who fought in the liberation struggle found unacceptable. they could not bear the thought that grace mugabe, once a typist in robert mugabe's office, would now be leader of the country when people who went to prison, people that spent time in prison, robert mugabe himself spent ten yea rs robert mugabe himself spent ten years behind bars, fighting white minority rule. many of his comrades are still alive. it would be a shame, as faras are still alive. it would be a shame, as far as they were concerned, to see grace mugabe taking the number one job concerned, to see grace mugabe taking the number onejob in the country while they were still there. milton, many thanks for your thoughts and analysis. we understand that meeting between robert mugabe and the generals is still going on right now here in harare. it is of

course possible that in those negotiations, if mugabe agrees with the generals to resign, that he could be gone from the presidency in the next few hours or even minutes. but i think the more likely scenario is that he will hold out against that, as he has done since the military takeover. he will continue to cling to offices. his nephew has already said he is willing to die for what he believes is right and that he will not give up the presidency. then the inevitable calls will be impeachment, and that will begin probably on tuesday in the parliament of both chambers. they will need a vote of two thirds to impeach robert mugabe. having lost the party leadership today, he would then lose the presidency as well. his humiliation, after 37 yea rs well. his humiliation, after 37 years in charge, would be complete. that is it from harare, with the latest on the zimbabwe crisis. back to you in the studio. the headlines on bbc news:

robert mugabe has been given an ultimatum of midday tomorrow to resign from his position as president of zimbabwe or face impeachment proceedings. the chancellor philip hammond has said britain needs to build an extra 300,000 homes a year to make an impact on the housing crisis. police say they're confident that the body found near swanage is that of the missing teenager, gaia pope. gaia's sister described her as the "light of my life". in sport, tommy fleetwood holds off justin rode for the race to dubai title. fleetwood finished the european season on top of the money list afterjustin rose fails to finish high enough in the final event, the tour championship, byjon rahm. england set up a cup semifinal with tonga after beating papua new guinea 36—6 in melbourne. and

england's women cricketers can still draw the ashes series after winning the second twenty20 in canberra. they won by a0 runs. australia have already retained the trophy. that is the sport, more in an hour. the chancellor philip hammond says there's no silver bullet to solve britain's housing crisis. but he told the bbc that a range of measures — to be set out in this week's budget — will help to get 300 thousand homes built a year. mr hammond also dismissed suggestions the government should borrow tens of billions of pounds to fund a massive house building programme. here's our political correspondent, emma va rdy. this is what phillip hammond wants to see, and he's calling time on so—called land—hoarders, saying it is no longer acceptable to have so many sites with planning permission that aren't being built on. today he told the bbc the state would intervene. there are, in london alone, 270,000 residential planning permissions that have not today been built. we need to understand why these

planning permissions that are going up all over the country, that will continue to increase across the country, why they are not being built out. on wednesday, philip hammond will announce £5 billion of investment for new housing, and he will reveal a range of measures not only designed to encourage the big construction firms but also schemes such as government—backed loans for smaller developers too. there could also be help for first—time buyers on things like stamp duty. the drive for more housing has cross—party support. but labour said today the government isn't doing enough for public services. shadow chancellorjohn mcdonnell argued this could be funded by ending tax cuts for the wealthy, not through borrowing. stop giving the tax cuts to the corporations and the rich and recognise you have an emergency out there in terms of public services. invest in those public services. and will these be

on our roads by 2021? philip hammond said driverless cars are the future and is setting out plans for new investment for technology and artificial intelligence. but will robots eventually put millions of us out of work? mr hammond said that won't happen, but had to clarify his comment that suggested there is zero unemployment. where are all these unemployed people? there are no unemployed people... there are a lot of unemployed people. we have created 3.5 million newjobs since 2010. this economy has become a jobs factory. this budget, says philip hammond, is also about building a country that's fit for a post—brexit world. but don't expect anything too controversial. that slim majority means the governmentjust doesn't have strong enough foundations to take many risks. early i spoke to emma vardy and she said it is not clear how much money

philip hammond is willing to spend on housing. he talked about £5 billion as an investment in housing. compare that to what someone else in his own party, the communities secretary sajid javid, in charge of housing, suggested. he said let's borrow 50 billion for housing. quite a gulf. you can see others in his own party wanted to go much further. philip hammond, meanwhile, he is putting the onus on the big developers, the big construction companies. saying, look, you guys can finish the job. it's not exactly clear yet whether that would do enough to reach the target of 300,000 new homes each year. in bygone years, before austerity, budgets used to be full of giveaways. but it feels like that was quite some time ago. as you say, philip hammond is much tighter with those purse strings. he says there is still a budget deficit, we are still spending more than were getting in taxes. he says we are just getting to the point where we turn the corner and start to bring debt down. that is why he is holding firm. we are respecting more caution

from him and not loosening the purse strings as some would like. there are strings as some would like. there a re lots of strings as some would like. there are lots of pressures on him, obviously brexit, which he which he feels he needs to keep some money, keep some headway for that, in case things go wrong. the pressure of universal credit, there are many in his own party who think more money should be put towards that. he has tojuggle all of those should be put towards that. he has to juggle all of those different things? he does. at the same time, labour keeps ramping up the pressure on the government and ramping up the pressure on philip hammond to end austerity. labour is pitching itself very differently, saying the conservatives are the party that will continue with the tax cuts for the wealthy, but labour sets out a very distinctive position. we heard john mcdonnell this morning talking up john mcdonnell this morning talking up the benefits of renationalising the utilities. the conservatives need to pick up support among young voters, something they are really very low on at the moment. any time we come back to the budget and we look at labour policies, it always comes back to this question of our people ready to trust labour again?

do they have the economic credibility? it was pointed outjohn mcdonnell this morning that, despite their surgeons and a jeremy corbyn, actually, they are still behind on the polls. —— there are surgeons. john mcdonnell himself said economic credibility is a place where they do need to improve. —— the resurgence. police in dorset say they're treating the death of the teenager — gaia pope — as unexplained. the 19 year old's body was found yesterday afternoon close to a coastal path near swanage. she was last seen alive on the seventh of november. our correspondent james ingham is at the scene in swanage. police are now trying to establish exactly how gaia died. at the moment, they are treating her death as unexplained. when gaia was last seen, she was said to be in a distressed state and, when she went missing, she didn't have medication on her that she needs for her epilepsy. but detectives believe she may well have been killed. last week, they arrested three people, questioning them on suspicion of her murder. they have now all subsequently been released. so, today, in a field down this dirt track, close to the coastal footpath here in swanage, forensic

teams are hard at work trying to establish clues, trying to find clues. they are also hoping that, together with results from a postmortem examination and door—to—door inquiries around here, it will help drive their future investigation. the discovery of gaia's body brought to an end 11 days of searching by emergency services, friends and family, and also strangers, volunteers who felt compelled to help. this town has been rocked by her disappearance, and now her death. tonight, prayers will be set at st mary's church in swanage as this small, peaceful, coastal town begins to come to terms with gaia's death. there's hope today that an argentine submarine that's been missing since wednesday with aa crew onboard might have been located. the sanjuan was returning from a routine mission near the southern—most tip of south america, when contact was lost with navy command.

now signals have been detected after an international search, in which the uk has been taking part. dan johnson reports. this is a vessel designed to play hide and seek in the deepest depths, so finding the sanjuan, its crew and the 22 torpedoes it carries, is a real challenge. fresh satellite signals, albeit weak ones, have revived hopes of rescue. so help is on its way. the us navy's loading deep sea rescue equipment and flying it to argentina. the submarine left the southern port of ushuaia on monday, after a routine mission. it was making the 2000 mile journey back to its base in mar del plata, not far from argentina's capital. the search is focused around halfway, in the sanjorge gulf, where the sub last made contact, but it's a huge area and poor weather has made a difficult search even harder. translation: we have to consider that it might be on the surface of the water,

as protocol says it should, because it would be easier for the submarine to get help that way. one of the aa crew members is argentina's first woman sub—mariner. the best hope for finding her and her crew mates alive, is that a power failure knocked out the submarine's communications. britain is now one of the five countries helping the argentine navy in the massive search to find the san juan. time foran time for an update on the weather. a fine day but change afoot overnight. a sister moving eastwards and ahead of it clear skies and early frost for a time. eventually, outbreaks of rain, a strengthening breeze moving into northern ireland and scotland will see some snow over the mountains. rain extending down into parts of northern england. further south, dryer, into parts of northern england. furthersouth, dryer, cloudy and into parts of northern england. further south, dryer, cloudy and a mild night than the one just gone.

the raised with us tomorrow morning, clearing from northern ireland. still some snow for a time, about a00 metres in scotland. the rain will take its time to go from parts of eastern england. ifind it, some brighter skies trying to get through. certainly a much cloudier day and a much milder day across england and wales, with highs of 12 01’ england and wales, with highs of 12 or 13 celsius. still quite cold across scotland and northern ireland. another system heads our way as we go into tuesday. unsettled weather through much of the week. further bricks of rain as we go through tuesday, the heaviest of which will be across scotland, northern ireland and northern england.