Tsvangirai could be 'Mandela' if he steps down

A senior Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party official Elias Mudzuri has come out in the open to suggest that the leader Morgan Tsvangirai should step down or risk having the Zanu-PF party rule Zimbabwe "until the cows come home".

In an opinion piece titled 'Zimbabweans must start debating the country's future' Mudzuri suggested that Tsvangirai be the "godfather" of the party by stepping down "ceremoniously".  That way, he said, Tsvangirai could become a "Mandela" of the party.

Mudzuri's remarks come in the wake of rebellion threats within the MDC after the party lost the 31 July election to President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

Mudzuri warned that without "introspection" and "debate" Zanu-PF was going to continue ruling the country.

Mudzuri has been fingered internally by Tsvangirai loyalists as part of a group - led by party treasurer Roy Bennett - which has been advocating for leadership change in the party.

This group wants Tsvangirai to stand down with dignity, while allowing the party to get a new leader to "re-engineer" the party ahead of the 2018 elections, said the report.

Last month Tsvangirai scoffed calls for him to resign saying that would be a betrayal of the people's aspirations as he was elected into the position by the party congress.

The next MDC congress will be in 2016.