On 17 November 2017, the late President R.G Mugabe appeared to have been temporarily released from his house arrest to attend a graduation ceremony at Zimbabwe Open University in Harare.
This was after the ZDF had issued a statement saying that it was not a coup d’état and that President Mugabe was safe, although the situation would return to normal only after the ZDF had dealt with the “criminals” around Mugabe responsible for the socio-economic problems of Zimbabwe.