VP Msika defends Dabengwa

                                                                   Staff Reporter

Vice President Joseph Msika has rallied behind Zanu PF Politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa who faces expulsion from the party for daring to support a rebellion against President Mugabe’s leadership.

Several ruling party leaders have launched savage attacks on the former Zipra Intelligence supremo after he dramatically announced he was backing a surprise bid for the Presidency by former Finance Minister Dr Simba Makoni.

Addressing a fund-raising function at the Zanu PF Davies Hall offices in Bulawayo, Msika said Dabengwa was a hero of the country’s freedom struggle who was now being hounded out of the party by power hungry apparatchiks in the capital, Harare.

Msika told the gathering that most of those hurling hysterical insults at the former Zipra intelligence chief did not themselves participate in the country’s war for independence.

The comments are a surprise turn-about from Msika who initially joined the frenzied attacks and Makoni and Dabengwa.

Dabengwa’s move particularly embarrassed the Vice President, who had confidently stated at President Mugabe campaign launch that all former PF Zapu leaders supported his candidacy insisting he was also speaking for Dabengwa and party Chairman, John Nkomo.

Msika’s latest comments appear to lend credence to speculation that the ruling party’s entire Matebeland leadership and the war veterans faction led by Andrew Ndlovu are behind Makoni’s bid to unseat Mugabe.

While Makoni’s challenge appeared to merely annoy President Mugabe, the defection by Dabengwa evidently shook the veteran leader.

Analysts say the development made it clear to Mugabe that discontent over his leadership ran very deep while his 1987 Unity Accord, which brought together Zanu PF and PF Zapu was becoming unstuck.

Zimbabweans go to the polls next Saturday with President Mugabe facing perhaps the stiffest challenge to his hold on power since independence in 1980.

The country is in the throes of a deep economic crisis which has driven millions into exile while those who remain must cope with record inflation levels of over 100 000 percent.