Zimbabwe's ruling party expels official for challenging Mugabe

Feb 7, 2008, 6:50 GMT

Harare - President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU(PF) party announced Thursday that it had expelled Simba Makoni, a member of the party's politburo and former finance minister, after he announced that he was challenging the 83-year-old leader in presidential elections scheduled for late March.

'Once one stands up and declares himself an independent candidate, that person would have expelled himself from the party,' party secretary for legal affairs Emmerson Munangagwa was quoted as saying in the state-controlled Herald newspaper. 'Makoni has expelled himself from the party. I say that without fear or favour.'

Makoni, 57, a senior official of the party since the mid-1970s, a long-serving cabinet minister and respected administrator regarded as the 'acceptable face' of Mugabe's party, announced Tuesday that he was standing as a presidential candidate in national elections on March 29 because of the 'failure of national leadership' under Mugabe that had led to 'extreme hardships' and 'agony and anguish' among all Zimbabweans.

He said he had hoped that the ruling party congress in December would 'usher in change' from Mugabe, the head of the government since independence in 1980 and of the party since 1974, but said he instead emerged disappointed in the 'failure' of the congress to allow a change in leadership.

At the congress, Mugabe and his top officials allowed only Mugabe to be nominated as the party's presidential candidate, barred debate and did not take a vote. The move caused political observers to say that Mugabe had adopted the role of de-facto 'president for life.'

It was not clear whether Munangagwa's statement was a result of a formal resolution of the politburo, but he said Makoni had 'violated the constitution.' He added that 'there were frantic efforts to split ZANU(PF) by the British and the Americans.'

An alleged conspiracy by the two governments to overthrow Mugabe and to recolonize the country has been a constant refrain of the party's propaganda organs, which have also blamed the West for the Zimbabwean economy's collapse amid inflation estimated at 150,000 per cent.

The state media made much of the presence of officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and of the British and American embassies at Makoni's press conference at which he made the announcement of his presidential bid.

Ironically, Munangagwa himself narrowly escaped expulsion from the party in 2005 when he was named at the head of a plot to stop Mugabe unilaterally choosing a successor. Instead, he was demoted as minister of a specially created department of rural housing. Since then, however, he has risen again and has returned to Mugabe's favour.