HARARE, Zimbabwe -- In the wake of a mutiny by soldiers in President Robert Mugabe's elite Presidential Guard, Zimbabweans are asking themselves if the regime is finally starting to crumble after seven years of misrule.

Mugabe was to delay his return home from a trip to the Far East after police confirmed reports that 23 members of the Presidential Guard had sprayed the front of State House, Mugabe's official residence, with gunfire on Jan. 29.

University of Zimbabwe political science professor Eldred Masungure said the economy has become an "invisible opposition" to Mugabe's rule.