What’s the fuss about Tsvangirai’s health all about?

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai is now past his sell-by date, according to The Herald. There is already a fight to succeed him. The main contenders, the state-controlled paper says, are party vice-president Thokozani Khupe and Nelson Chamisa who was elbowed out of the powerful secretary-general’s post only to be brought back into the national executive by Tsvangirai.

According to The Herald, which carries two stories about Tsvangirai’s pending exit, one by its political editor Tichaona Zindoga and the other by columnist Manheru who is widely believed to be information secretary George Charamba, Tsvangirai is in such bad shape that he failed to attend a rally in Mutare on Thursday where he was billed to lead from the front.

But Tsvangirai’s spokesman Luke Tamborinyoka says The Herald is trying to equate the MDC to the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front which is riddled by factionalism.

 “There is no one jockeying for any position in the MDC and the so-called ructions are a figment of your imagination. For the record, President Tsvangirai has a very good relationship with his deputy, Hon. Thokozani Khupe, and the rest of the standing committee which has stood by him in his current indisposition.  As I have said, Mr Tsvangirai is only worried about the health of the country’s economy. Mr Tsvangirai is in high spirits and he is recovering,” Tamborinyoka told The Herald.

Party spokesman Obert Gutu went a step further.

“President Morgan Tsvangirai is our best foot forward; he is the real deal. We are all of us solidly united behind our leader. Any talk to the contrary is just but bar talk fuelled by lazy and misdirected people who have nothing better to do with their time,” Gutu said.

The question is: Could The Herald be smelling something within the MDC, or is it trying to sway the people away from the problems that the country is facing?

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