Zanu-PF burns over bonuses

Brawling post-congress Zanu-PF big wigs have opened another battlefront in their party's seemingly  unstoppable factional and succession wars, this time exchanging deadly barbs over the government's unfulfilled bonus promises to restless civil servants.

At the same time, the continued inability by the broke state to pay its employees their promised 13th cheques for last year is raising fresh tensions, with disaffected public sector doctors, nurses and teachers threatening to embark on debilitating mass actions over the issue.

Well-placed Zanu-PF sources told the Daily News yesterday that the thorny bonus issue had become a "poison laced game of poker" in President Mugabe's ruling party, with many bigwigs taking positions over the matter that merely advanced their factions' interests.