Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) West plots Tsvangirai exit: Madhuku

West plots Tsvangirai exit: Madhuku
28/04/2012 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu

WESTERN embassies in Harare are trying to engineer the removal of Morgan Tsvangirai as leader of the MDC-T, National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) chairman Lovemore Madhuku has claimed.

The MDC-T leader, currently Prime Minister in the coalition government, has enjoyed Western backing since emerging as a real threat to President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party more than a decade ago.

Mugabe continuously dismisses his rival -- who also appears to have ridden-off concerns over personal scandals -- as a puppet of Western governments keen to force regime change to punish Zanu PF for seizing white-owned farms. However, Madhuku suggested that the West was now looking to change its Trojan horse.

“There is a mentality throughout Western embassies that MDC-T must be led by an academic,” Madhuku told a SAPES Trust public debate in Harare.

“They have confided in and consulted me on the best candidate to lead the party instead of Prime Minister Tsvangirai."

Madhuku claimed that Western embassies were sponsoring mayhem within the MDC-T in a bid to force the leadership change.

“We know that they are sponsoring a lot of programmes at Harvest House in a bid to have an academic lead the party,” he said.

“The embassies are creating instability within the party by discussing succession issues."

Trade unionist Lovemore Matombo also backed Madhuku saying: “The embassies are creating instability within the party by discussing succession issues.”

But MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora dismissed Madhuku’s claims, insisting there was no appetite for leadership change within the party.

“Madhuku should concentrate on reviving his NCA, which is on the brink of collapse rather than commenting on behalf of the MDC,” he said.

MDC-T secretary general and Finance Minister Tendai Biti has also ruled out the prospect of an immediate challenge to Tsvangirai’s leadership from within the party.

Speaking in the United States recently, Biti said Tsvangirai’s “connectivity with the people” was one of the reason the MDC-T would “win (the next) election decisively”.

“… In Morgan Tsvangirai we have got a leader who is essentially the face of the struggle, the face of change in Zimbabwe. He’s clearly the undisputed – undisputable leader of the change struggle in Zimbabwe,” he said.

Since leading the formation of the MDC-T in 2009, Tsvangirai has remained the biggest challenge to Mugabe’s three-decade stranglehold on power, even beating the Zanu PF leader in the first round of the 2008 presidential elections.

The MDC-T survived an acrimonious split in 2005 which was triggered by a dispute over participation in the Senate elections. Critics however, blame the break-up for dividing the opposition vote and helping to keep Mugabe and his Zanu PF party in power.

Meanwhile, a new election showdown is looming after both Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed that their coalition government is no longer workable and must make way for a more substantive administration. But they continue to row over the timing of the election.

Mugabe, now 88 and dogged by repeated speculation over his health, wants the vote held this year while Tsvangirai says ongoing constitutional and other political reforms need to be completed first.

"It's just not possible to hold elections this year, there is no constitution and no referendum has been held," the MDC-T leader said recently.

"Elections will be held at the outer limit; that is in March 2013 when the current term of the lawmakers would have constitutionally expired."

Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, EMBASSIES, LOVEMORE MADHUKU, MDC, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 4:57 PM