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The Financial Gazette on Saturday revealed Zanu-PF's plan to weaken Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe's party is said to be specifically targeting the premier and his most influential secretary general, Tendai Biti.

The newspaper's impeccable sources said ZANU-PF bigwigs are working round the clock to implement strategies aimed at sowing seeds of hatred and disaffection between the two MDC-T stalwarts whom they view as the cornerstone of the labour and civil society backed party. 

This would not be the first time the liberation war party has tried to divide the two. Analysts have said a similar attempt was made last year in the build-up to the MDC-T's congress as ZANU-PF tried to instigate Biti to challenge Tsvangirai, but this hit a brick wall when the Finance Minister did not do so.

Biti has since endured more scrutiny and vitriol as he holds the keys to the country’s purse. 

Rightly or wrongly, fingers have been pointed at him for the low salaries for civil servants. Also, war veterans have demonstrated at his offices calling for his head. 

But some analysts have said the placards carried by the war veterans and other groups who have demonstrated at Biti’s offices had the hallmarks of being sponsored acts as they were neatly and commercially printed.

This could not be further from the truth as it has now emerged that there are some strategists within ZANU-PF who have set their sights at making sure that the MDC-T secretary general does not retain his parliamentary seat come election time. 

Biti won the Harare East seat in the 2008 general elections.

The strategists believe ZANU-PF would have succeeded in shaking the roots of the MDC-T if it to dislodges Biti since Prime Minister Tsvangirai is seen as the face of the party while Biti is the engine.

But Biti laughed off the recent revelations yesterday saying ZANU-PF has always been after him.

“I know that ZANU-PF would pay billions to see me gone. They have always been    fighting me, that is why they have sent   bombs at my house, they have sent the war veterans against me so it is so obvious,” said Biti.

Sources insisted this week that the ZANU-PF schemers are eager to break Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Biti’s alliance as it presents a formidable enemy.

So the party’s strategists have gone all out to ensure that Biti does not retain his Harare East constituency so that Tsvangirai would view his secretary general’s rejection at the polls as a positive sign aiding his grip on the MDC-T. 

The theory is that such a rejection by both the voters and the MDC-T leader would widen the rifts within the labour backed party. 

Sources say evidence is abundant to show the thickening plot. 

For starters, ZANU-PF is busy creating a wedge between Biti and the civil servants by making it appear as if the Finance Minister is against increasing their salaries. On the other hand, war veterans have also been made to believe that their perks are not being reviewed because Biti does not value their contribution to the liberation struggle. Completing the picture is the fact that government media has been on a war path with Biti, trashing each one of his policies while there have been attempts to criminalise the MDC-T bigwig by linking him to PM Tsvangirai’s “double dipping” case and blaming him for the loss of more than US$50 million invested by the government in the collapsed Interfin Bank.

But ZANU-PF national spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo, dismissed the allegations saying that his party would not target individuals.

“That is nonsense, why would we target individuals? We do not target individuals but policies and ideologies they represent. No I am not aware of such a plot,” said Gumbo yesterday.

Biti has a long history of fights with ZANU-PF stemming from his days at the University of Zimbabwe. He was among the university student activists to give the ZANU-PF government headaches when they spearheaded protests against President Mugabe’s government.  Biti also defended Ndabaningi Sithole, the late ZANU Ndonga leader, from going to prison in his high treason trial in the 1990s.

The Finance Minister has also consistently opposed ZANU-PF’s dominance in the inclusive government while calling for transparency in the exploitation of the country’s diamond resources.

Source: FinGaz