Troubled Mauritius President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim resigns, her lawyer says
President claims she accidentally used a charity’s bank card instead of her own when out shopping
Scandal-tainted Mauritius President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has resigned, according to her lawyer.
The move came after Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth accused the president of back-pedalling on a promise to quit amid allegations of misconduct and threatening unspecified actions is she did not step down.
The dispute between the two leaders has ratcheted up uncertainty on the Indian Ocean island, which been politically and economically stable since it gained independence from Britain in 1968. The World Bank ranks the country as the easiest place to do business in Africa.
Gurib-Fakim, the country’s first female head of state, on Wednesday denied having any plans to resign and said she was prepared to go to court over allegations she spent money from a charity on a shopping trip. That was just days after Jugnauth said Gurib-Fakim told him during a meeting at State House she planned to step down.
“I am shocked – shocked is not a strong enough word,” Jugnauth told reporters on Thursday in the capital, Port Louis, in a briefing broadcast by Radio Plus. “It’s an attitude which is damaging to the office of the presidency. It’s a behaviour which does not honour our republic.”