Harare: Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe will meet military commanders for talks on Sunday, state broadcaster ZTV said on Saturday, quoting Catholic priest Fidelis Mukonori who has been mediating the negotiations.

Zimbabwe’s ruling party will dismiss President Robert Mugabe on Sunday and reinstate Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice-president he fired, two party sources told Reuters on Saturday, as ecstatic crowds celebrated the expected downfall.

Mugabe’s 37-year rule has been effectively at an end since the army seized control on Wednesday, confining him to his residence, saying it wanted to target the ‘criminals’ around him.

But hundreds of thousands of people had no need for a formal signal that his time had ended as they flooded the streets of Harare, singing, dancing and hugging soldiers.

In scenes reminiscent of the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, men, women and children ran alongside the armoured cars and the troops who stepped in this week to oust the only ruler Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980.

Others marched towards his lavish ‘Blue Roof’ residence, but were kept away by soldiers.

Under house arrest in his compound, the 93-year-old has watched support from his party, security services and people evaporate in less than three days.

The sources said a ZANU-PF party central committee meeting scheduled for 10:30am (0830 GMT) would also dismiss 93-year-old Mugabe’s preferred successor, his wife Grace, from her role as head of the ZANU-PF Women’s League.

Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao, speaking from an undisclosed location in South Africa, told Reuters the leader and his wife were ‘ready to die for what is correct’ rather than step down in order to legitimise what he described as a coup.

Zhuwao also said that only Mugabe, who had hardly slept since the military took over but was otherwise in ‘good’ health, could call a meeting of the central committee.