Mugabe headed for a clash with JOMIC

President Mugabe is headed for a head-on clash with members of the Joint Operations Command pushing for the arrest of Premier Morgan Tsvangirai on allegations of misappropriating $1.5 million allocated by the RBZ for the purchase of his official residence in 2009.

President Mugabe is sceptical over the issue while the JOC hardliners are convinced Tsvangirai has a case to answer.

JOC comprises heads of the country's police, army prisons and the Central Intelligence Organisation.

Unnamed official sources say security service chiefs were desperately campaigning for Tsvangirai's arrest over the issue before the next elections.

It is said they wanted him picked up last September while President Mugabe was at the UN General Assembly in New York, a move which would have triggered local and international outrage.

JOC hardliners were also probing to check if Finance minister Tendai Biti was not an accomplice. They also wanted to arrest Biti over the $500 million SDR funds the IMF gave Zimbabwe in 2009.

There are also reports that RBZ governor Gideon Gono, who was the negotiator between President Mugabe and PM Tsvangirai when the deal to give Tsvangirai $1.5 million was struck in October 2009, was facing arrest for "obstruction of the course of justice."

Daily News has sources saying Gono and Tsvangirai connived on the deal.