The streets of Harare were quiet earlier this week as people went about their business. Vendors were selling newspapers; gardeners were cutting well-manicured lawns in more up-scale neighbourhoods; coffee shops were crowded with customers; students walked to school in their starched and well pressed uniforms. But when I stopped to talk to people on Monday, without exception they were frustrated, angry and puzzled by Robert Mugabe’s failure to announce the previous evening that he would step down as president.