Daggers drawn as Tsvangirai, Khupe clash on grand coalition

Fresh fissures have rocked the opposition MDC-T leadership, with party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy, Thokozani Khupe, giving discordant views on the proposed grand coalition to contest against President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF in next year's elections.

With Tsvangirai having declared that a coalition deal, particularly with Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) leader Joice Mujuru, is as good as done, Khupe yesterday literally threw the cat among the pigeons, arguing the MDC-T may not need partners in the Matabeleland provinces.

Khupe, one of Tsvangirai's three deputies together with Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri, in a move that seems to ring-fence her area of influence, suggested that the proposed alliance should only be confined to Mashonaland, as MDC-T structures in the Matabeleland region have consistently won against Zanu PF since the turn of the millennium.