Ex-minister Makoni taunts Mugabe in presidency challenge (Roundup)

Feb 7, 2008, 17:44 GMT

Johannesburg/Harare - Simba Makoni, Zimbabwe's former finance minister who announced his bid to challenge President Robert Mugabe in presidential elections next month, Thursday taunted the octogenarian leader, suggesting he could unseat Mugabe as the ruling party's candidate and stand for the presidency in his place.

Makoni, 57, a junior member of Mugabe's politburo, had rattled the Zimbabwean political scene Tuesday when he declared he would stand against the 'failed leadership' of Mugabe.

The move came ahead of an election which has been looking like a repeat of the last three polls which were dismissed internationally as rigged by Mugabe.

Observers say Makoni's strength as a popular, veteran figure with powerful backing in the ruling ZANU(PF) party, lies in his ability to lure significant numbers of votes from ruling party faithful.

Many are disillusioned by the catastrophic collapse of Africa's second largest economy after South Africa, with inflation estimated by the International Monetary Fund at 150,000 per cent, and shortages of everything from money and electricity to drugs and fuel.

He dismissed at a press conference Thursday a statement in the local media by ruling party legal secretary and Mugabe loyalist Emmerson Munangagwa.

Munangagwa said Makoni had 'expelled himself' by declaring his challenge to Mugabe, who was adopted at the ruling party's congress in a process commentators say was fixed to ensure he had no competition.

Makoni denied that there were any provisions in the party's constitution for 'self-expulsion,' and said he would continue 'my functions as a member of the party until I am excluded by due process.'

Questioned about whom he was representing, he said - apparently with tongue in cheek - that he would stand 'for my party,' until he was stopped by formal disciplinary proceedings, in which case he would stand as an independent.

Asked how he could stand for the ruling party when Mugabe was already nominated by his party's congress, Makoni said: 'I don't believe anything is set in concrete.'

He also made a point of appealing to 'those in ZANU(PF) who have been, and still are working with us in this project for national renewal, to remain steadfast and not be intimidated.'

Political analysts warn that the articulate, affable Makoni is certain to have enraged the elderly president with what is regarded in ruling party circles as an act of treason.

'There are plenty of those who have fallen out of favour who have met a sticky end,' said one ruling party official who asked not to be named. 'Simba is a very brave man and he had better be very careful.'

It was not clear whether Munangagwa's statement that Makoni had 'expelled himself' 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.

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 Tuesday.

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.