Chamisa confronts Tsvangirai

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday came face-to-face with the party's organising secretary, Nelson Chamisa, for the first time since the Mutare fiasco at which it is reported that tempers flared, leading to an altercation between the two.

Impeccable sources within the party, hit to the core by a second damaging split inside 10 years, told The Zimbabwe Mail that Chamisa confronted the party leader and inquired of the media reports  alluding a misunderstanding between the two at the party's national executive meeting held over the weekend.

"Chamisa asked the president what it is he had done wrong and if it was true that he (Tsvangirai) had been telling people that there was a near fist-fight between them in Mutare. Tsvangirai responded that there had never been a verbal altercation or finger-pointing but told Chamisa to his face that he had belittled him after refusing to be introduced during the nomination process," said an insider.

"Chamisa remained stone-faced and the matter died a natural death."

Luke Tamborinyoka, the MDC-T's director of information and Tsvangirai's spokesperson, tried to wriggle out of the issue when asked yesterday.

"The president has since dismissed those reports as rumours, he has said there was never an altercation. This is congress time and some people would like to invoke Tsvangirai's name either to promote or demote certain interests but there is no rift between the two," said Tamborinyoka without elaborating which platform Tsvangirai had used to express his feelings over the matter.