"We do not support Makoni," says Zimbabwe vice president

Mar 1, 2008, 8:30 GMT

Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's Vice President Joseph Msika says he and top party officials do not support rebel ex-finance minister Simba Makoni, calling him a 'minnow' in politics.

Msika said the former minister, who is standing against President Robert Mugabe in next month's polls, was 'politically bankrupt,' the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Saturday.

The vice president said newspaper reports linking him and other top ZANU-PF officials to Makoni were attempts at division.

'They want to divide us,' Msika is reported to have told delegates gathered for the launch of the ZANU-PF campaign and manifesto in Harare on Friday.

British-educated Makoni, a former executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), shocked Mugabe earlier this month when he announced his decision to stand.

The ex-finance minister says he has the secret support of many ZANU-PF heavyweights, a claim that appears to worry the 84-year-old president. At the campaign launch on Friday, Mugabe told assembled delegates he hoped he could 'trust' them.

The Zimbabwean leader is seeking a fourth term in office at the polls on March 29. He has been in power since independence in 1980.

But for the first time ever he has two strong challengers: Makoni and main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who lost only narrowly to Mugabe in 2002 polls.

Mugabe's supporters claim his rivals will return land seized under a controversial land reform programme to white farmers: Tsvangirai and Makoni both promise to repair Zimbabwe's spectacular economic mess.

Under Mugabe, inflation has soared to more than 100,000 per cent on the back of falling agricultural and industrial production, critical foreign currency shortages and a plummeting local dollar.

Pledging his support for Mugabe, Vice President Msika said he was speaking on behalf of Vice President Joyce Mujuru, her ex-army general husband Solomon, ZANU-PF national party chairman John Nkomo and politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa. All have been speculatively linked to the Makoni faction.

He admitted that sometimes he differed with Mugabe but 'their differences were on minor issues and not on principles,' said the Herald. Msika said he admired Makoni only for his 'academic inclination.'