Robert Mugabe is ready to step down as the Zimbabwean “President”, high-level sources are now telling AFP.

HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe is ready to step down after he accepted he failed to win the country’s presidential election, a senior source in his ruling party and diplomats told AFP Tuesday.

An official in Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party said the president was prepared to step down after 28 years in power but was still trying to win agreement from the army’s chief of staff Constantine Chiwenga.

Three European diplomats meanwhile said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was ready to deliver a press conference to confirm the news.

“He is prepared to step down because he doesn’t want to embarrass himself by going to a run-off,” the ZANU-PF source said on condition of anonymity.

The AFP says senior diplomats in Harare are confirming that “a deal had been done for Mugabe to step aside in favour of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.” A European diplomat confirms that opposition leader Tsvangirai, who would take Mugabe’s place, has called a press conference for this evening.

Ed Morrissey reminisces of the disaster that has been Robert Mugabe’s rule.

And what a disaster Mugabe has been. He took the former nation of Rhodesia and reduced it to pauper status. Zimbabwe had a booming agriculture industry and the beginnings of industrialization when he took charge. Thanks to a mix of statism, post-colonial petulance, and sheer stupidity, Zimbabwe cannot feed itself after being a net exporter, and all of the capital that promised to bring modernization to the country has fled to avoid confiscation.

A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe is reported to cost in the area of tens of million of Zimbabwean dollars. A burger will run you about 25 million.