Mugabe faces fresh political challenges

The threatened launch of two new political parties in Zimbabwe are set to deepen the challenges facing President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party, political analysts say.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has announced it would "facilitate" the formation of a labour party to take on ZANU-PF in legislative elections next year, and in a further flexing of political muscle, promises a tough round of collective wage bargaining later this year.

In Matebeleland, once the industrial heartland of the country, the political movement ZAPU-2000 is drawing on popular resentment over the neglect of the western region and perceived hegemony of the majority Shona ethnic group at the expense of the Ndebele who make up 20 percent of the population. ZAPU-2000 is not yet a political party, but reportedly intends to stand in coming elections.

"There is a groundswell of support for a political change," ZCTU leader Morgan Tsvangirai told IRIN. "People have realised that it's time to move from talking about what's wrong to fighting for it." The ZCTU is planning an extra-ordinary conference in June to "define the way forward" for the proposed new "worker-friendly" party, he added. "The situation is unprecedented since independence and it all has to dowith the crisis of overnance," Tsvangirai said. "The system is rotten through and through.
It centralised power and didn't allow for democratic discourse. It is power by control and not power by consent. People realise
the question is no longer about wages - it's political."

Meanwhile, speculation is mounting that Mugabe will not offer himself for re-election when his current term ends in 2002 and the issue of who in the ruling ZANU-PF is to succeed him is increasingly taking political centre stage.

Mugabe, 75, has not attempted to quash the reports. Analysts suggest the leadership is attempting to test public opinion over the possible retirement of the man who has led Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, ahead of the party's congress in December this year.

Mugabe has consistently said he would not name a successor, and expects his political heir to emerge naturally from within the party. Jockeying for position is already underway by potential contenders in a field widely believed to be led by Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and State Security Minister Sydney Sekeremayi.

Mugabe, if he does stand down as a presidential aspirant, is expected to follow the model of retired Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere and remain as ZANU-PF party leader.