By Never Kadungure
Harare- Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai used a press conference on Sunday to blame outsiders for stirring up trouble within his party. He was responding to a question asked by a journalist on inter-party clashes that saw Chief Executive Officer Tondeipi Shonhe allegedly being assaulted by party youths.
Tsvangirai said several youths had already been expelled from the party over the violence and efforts would be stepped up to educate members about resolving differences peacefully. He said the violence had nothing to do with an alleged power struggle between himself and Secretary General Tendai Biti.
“We are united as one front,” Tsvangirai said, blaming the clashes on younger members influenced by outsiders. “There’s a lot of infiltration,” he said without elaborating.
Nehanda Radio however has it on good authority that several western embassies and their governments are pouring money into building a faction led by Biti to try and have him succeed Tsvangirai. They are apparently unhappy with Tsvangirai’s perceived soft stance towards Mugabe’s intransigence in refusing to genuinely share power.
For example one western news agency referred to Biti as a ‘popular party leader’ despite this being completely untrue. ‘He is scorned upon by most party members as a snob and could never unseat the much more down to earth and liked Tsvangirai,’ a senior official told us Sunday.
The MDC-T met over the weekend for two days to deliberate on its continued involvement in the unity government given the persecution of Roy Bennett and the boycott of a Council of Ministers meeting Wednesday. Only Environment Ministers Francis Nhema is said to have bothered to show up from Zanu PF. Tsvangirai called upon SADC to mend the unity government differences. Nehanda Radio
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