Tsvangirai mum on resignation calls

Morgan Tsvangirai has remained tight-lipped as calls for his removal grow louder.

Tsvangirai's spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka, on Tuesday said his boss would not respond to issues "below his stature".

"He is seized with national issues and will not respond to issues that are below his stature," said Tamborinyoka.

Party deputy treasurer Elton Mangoma stoked already simmering tensions over the MDC-T succession debate when he wrote a damning paper to Tsvangirai, crudely asking the veteran trade unionist to step down.

Youths aligned to Tsvangirai have now threatened to bar Mangoma from accessing his office at the party headquarters in central Harare.

Mangoma on Tuesday confirmed he had heard of the threats, adding the issue of intra-party violence remained sticky in the opposition party.

"You will notice that it is one of the issues I raised in my paper to the president and I have been told they have promised violence against me," Mangoma said.

"I will go there sometime this week and see what happens," said Mangoma. "Since the 2005 split, the issue of intra-party violence and its spectre has and still remains a real possibility."

Tamborinyoka, while confirming the MDC-T leader had been made aware of the threats on Mangoma, said his boss had swiftly moved to diffuse tension.

"That is why he (Tsvangirai) personally came to warn the youths who have threatened the deputy treasurer against such behaviour. Violence is alien to the MDC-T because we are a democratic party. Tsvangirai is a true democrat who does not only speak democracy, but lives it. It is not criminal within the MDC-T to be ambitious and Mangoma is safe at Harvest House," Tamborinyoka said.

In his letter to Tsvangirai last week, Mangoma called on the veteran trade unionist to relinquish power for the good of the party.

Mangoma has been vilified on social-networking sites, but the real danger has come from youths normally stationed at the party's Harvest House offices.

Party national executive member Charlton Hwende said of Mangoma on Facebook on Tuesday:

"After the letter published today allegedly written by Elton Mangoma, I am now convinced that Nikuv worked with some senior people in the party to rig elections and oust Tsvangirai.

The chief proponents of the call to remove the president the treasurer and deputy treasurer are the same people who sent us as parliamentary candidates with no resources at all to battle against Zanu-PF in the last elections".