Mugabe faces presidency rival from own party

The Telegraph

By Sebastien Berger and Byron Dziva in Harare
Last Updated: 2:28am GMT 16/01/2008

Robert Mugabe is to face a challenge from within his own Zanu-PF party at a presidential election in March. It is the greatest threat to his rule since he came to power almost 30 years ago.

Mr Mugabe was unanimously endorsed as the ruling party’s presidential candidate at a stage-managed congress last month. But the public show of unity behind the octogenarian leader failed to repair deep divisions in the organisation between modernisers, who believe its mismanagement has gone too far, and radicalisers, who think that the solution to Zimbabwe’s impoverishment is more of the same.

Senior sources within Zanu-PF told The Daily Telegraph last night that dissident party members will nominate Simba Makoni to stand against Mr Mugabe.

Well-regarded and considered atypical of the country’s political elite, Mr Makoni, 57, studied chemistry at Leeds University in the 1970s before going on to do a doctorate at Leicester Polytechnic.

He was the youngest minister in the first post-independence government when he was appointed deputy minister of agriculture.
A party insider said Mr Mugabe would hit back with “the ferocity of a tsunami” and those behind the “putsch” had “better hold their own before the worst comes”.

Rather than forming a breakaway party of their own, the rebels intend to bring in as much as they can of the Zanu-PF machine – which would severely restrict Mr Mugabe’s ability to rig the election.

The move has been born out of “frustration” with Mr Mugabe, the source said, and he predicted a “landslide” victory at the polls. “It’s the end of him,” he said.

“We are offering the party membership and the nation at large a new hope. We will put an end to the rubbish that is going on, with better management and a start to national healing.”

Mr Makoni has long had the backing of Solomon Mujuru, a former army commander who has substantial business interests, and observers point out that he would be able to mobilise his loyalists in the military and intelligence apparatus.

The key question may be whether an electoral pact can be reached with the divided MDC. Tendai Biti, its secretary-general, said that it was open to talks with a new organisation once it was formed. But he said it was “out of the question” for its head, Morgan Tsvangirai, to stand aside to give Mr Makoni a clear run.

David Coltart, a senior figure in the other MDC grouping, said: “At the presidential level nobody wants to split the vote. The question is will Makoni be brave enough to take this step? There’s no doubt in my mind it will unleash a terrible backlash.

“If Makoni entered into an electoral pact with the broad opposition and managed to split Zanu-PF down the middle, that would be the most significant event probably since independence and they could win.”

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