Mugabe says he won’t fire Mutambara

Comment & Analysis
BY FAITH ZABA AND NQABA MATSHAZI PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe said the new president of the smaller MDC faction, Welshman Ncube could only be sworn in as deputy prime minister if Arthur Mutambara resigns on his own accord.

Mugabe told Zimbabweans in Addis Ababa at a luncheon held at the ambassador’s residence that Mutambara’s ouster as leader of the smaller MDC faction created not just political problems but also a legal one.“So we now have Welshman Ncube as the new president? And then what does he do to the three principlas? “We have been working together in the Global Political Agreement right from the start,” he said. “This creates legal problems. Politically, they were able to remove him but legally we swore him in as a Member of Parliament and I swore him as deputy prime minister. “I don’t know — it is up to him if he wants to resign and if he refuses to resign we are stuck. But the GPA will move ahead.”Mugabe said he doubted Ncube’s rise was a decision that came from the majority of the people in his party. “I thought this is the opposition which was crying out Zanu PF is undemocratic. “I don’t know whether people really took the decision that came out of that congress,” he said.  “Well poor Mutambara, those who invited him now say he has overstayed. He actually came to me and he went to our Prime Minister (Morgan) Tsvangirai also and spent time with him and spent time with me and told us what was going on — that was before the congress when there was lots of chicanery, cunning and mischief and he said he  was not going to stand as a candidate for the presidency of MDC-M.” Mugabe’s comments will fuel speculation that Mutambara, who has not commented publicly a week after he was asked to step down by his party, may try to hang on to his post.Sources told The Standard that Mutambara was prepared to be made a lame duck DPM with most of the executive roles taken away from him in the clearest indication yet that he will not leave his post without a fight. It has since emerged that a few days before his departure for Davos, Switzerland where he is attending the World Economic Forum, Mutambara met the new MDC secretary-general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and made some demands.MDC insiders believe Mutambara, who had initially looked agreeable to switching positions with Ncube, changed tact after getting advice from Zanu PF and MDC-T. The two parties are reportedly urging Mutambara to resist the redeployment to spite Ncube who is yet to officially communicate the party’s decision to Mugabe.  Ncube was told that he would only meet Mugabe after the AU summit.Mutambara is reported to have asked the party to leave him as DPM so that he could pursue his pet projects of rebranding the country and the Public Private Partnerships (PPP).Meanwhile, Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema was expected to assume the chairmanship of the African Union at a summit underway in Ethiopia. Obiang’s ascendancy will further complicate the AU’s role in solving Zimbabwe’s long-running political crisis as he is a close ally of President Robert Mugabe.