'Mugabe out to destroy me,' says Tsvangirai

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai has accused President Robert Mugabe of working hard to destroy him so that the opposition party will sponsor a weak candidate that will face Zanu-PF in the 2018 elections.

The former Premier yesterday claimed the 90 year old leader was working with the MDC-T renewal team which is calling for his resignation as party leader.

Tsvangirai said Mugabe and State security agents were plotting his downfall. He said this was confirmed by the Zanu-PF leader's Independence Day speech on Friday.

"I heard Mugabe speak on Independence Day saying we should leave rebels alone," he said.

"I asked myself why he is so kind to them. We got you, now you have come out in the open for sending them."

The former trade unionist said Mugabe, at his advanced age, was now history and the MDC-T was focusing on forming the next government after gaining experience as an opposition party and as a party in government.

MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora had earlier told NewsDay that Mugabe and his party had co-opted State security agents in their "project" to destroy the opposition party and the Tsvangirai brand.

"From the comments of President Mugabe we now know who is behind the destabilisation of the MDC-T," he said.

"Fortunately neither he nor his junta will be able to destroy the MDC-T. For us in the MDC-T, freedom of expression does not mean violating resolutions of the national standing committee, national executive and national council for leaders not to discuss important party matters through the press."

Mwonzora added: "It appears that Mugabe is too old to remember what has been happening in his own party.

"A few years ago he and his party fired Dzikamai Mavhaire (now Energy minister) for suggesting that Mugabe must resign.

"Not so long ago, he was furious and ruthlessly punished most of his provincial chairpersons for a meeting in Tsholotsho."

He said rebels in the MDC-T should not rely on Mugabe for protection.

Former MDC-T deputy treasurer-general Elton Mangoma, who is said to be working with the party's secretary-general Tendai Biti, has called for Tsvangirai to step down saying he was a liability to the MDC-T brand.

Tsvangirai said those who were calling for his resignation were not founding members of the party.

He said Dhungwa was one of the founding members of the MDC-T who were resolute on sticking to the founding values of the party.

"In terms of how the party started up to now, these are the founders, they are not stakeholders, but they are shareholders," said Tsvangirai.

"Nothing can be done in the absence of shareholders. If you are a stakeholder, you will just come like Mangoma and say I am here."

But Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said Tsvangirai was "mad" and a dictator who should give the people what they want. "Who takes him seriously, he has reached a level of, for lack of a better word, madness. I don't think he is himself," he charged.

"The reality is the MDC is in disarray and they should accept that they should give the MDC people reform they want because they claim to be democratic. They are dictatorial and authoritarian."

MDC-Team spokesperson Jacob Mafume said Tsvangirai was the one working with Zanu-PF by his continued stay in a government house for free and having married a Zanu-PF woman.