I now have it on very good authority that the announcement that Thabo Mbeki was going to come to Zimbabwe to “define Mugabe’s powers in the context of the Global Political Agreement (GPA)” was nothing but CIO and ZANU PF disinformation.

ZANU PF wanted this to happen, absolutely certain that Mbeki would take the (correct) legal position that Mugabe’s presidential powers remain intact and, as he heads cabinet, has the authority to make changes to ministries as he did with Chamisa’s.

But it could only happen if the Prime Minister falls into the trap and agrees to ask Mbeki to come back to Harare to deal with the matter.

But the Prime Minister moved quickly to dismiss the disinformation. He may have actually wisened up on this one and it appears as though, for the first time, he has anticipated the dictator and has a wonderfully workable counter-strategy.

Hence, he is insisting that, yes, he knows that Mugabe has all of those LEGAL powers, but that this is not a legalistic matter, rather a moral one.

He intends to keep hammering home to Mugabe that, although he has the “legal” powers, he must approach this whole matter from the moral viewpoint: there are things he can do to ensure that money is unlocked by the international community.

If Mugabe relents on some of the “smaller issues”, Tsvangirai tells the dictator, then the job of asking for donor funds to revive Zimbabwe would be that much easier.

Tsvangirai’s problem, however, is that Mugabe apparently believes that no matter what he does, the West will not come in to help the Inclusive Government.

He is still of the view that the fight with Britain and America is about land and he is actually hoping that Tsvangirai fails to convince the donor nations to help, so that he can turn around to the electorate and the African constituency and tell them, ” I told you this was about Land Reform… they will not help us until we give back the farms to white farmers.”

I think the one thing even Tsvangirai’s enemies agree on is that the man has a dogged determination.

It appears he is putting this to good use here, unrelenting even as he uses a pinhead to poke the ZANU PF lion repeatedly.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he may irritate it into moving, even if it is just for a bit.

I think we have entered a very interesting time in the affairs of Zimbabwe and the next couple of weeks, while not delivering a clear verdict on whether ZANU PF stands or falls, should indicate to us just how much moral power the Prime Minister can wrestle from the ruling party, in the name of asking for space to right the economy.

The only let-down may be from the West, who may indeed refuse still to listen to him and resist all efforts to bring in money to help the economy.

If they do that and continue on that path, they may well be sabotaging the Prime Minister at a time when he is emerging with what I personally see as the strategy that has the best prospect for success.

It appears he has found a ZANU PF weak spot and that spot is Gideon Gono, who is being abandoned by people with ZANU PF, although not yet by Mugabe. If Tsvangirai succeeds on Gono, it would be correct to say he would have badly wounded ZANU PF. Whether the wound would be fatal will then depend on what he (Tsvangirai) does for an encore.

Brace yourselves, Zimbabwean politics is about to get even more turbulent!

(Source)