Tsvangirai unfazed by ‘renewal’ attacks

via Tsvangirai unfazed by ‘renewal’ attacks | SW Radio Africa. 19 June 2014   by Tichaona Sibanda

MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who has in the last two months been the target of a concerted attack by the renewal team, is reportedly unfazed by the blitz against him.

Since January, Tsvangirai has weathered the verbal attacks, but recently the renewal team, led by former MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti has unleashed a new offensive, this time concentrating on his love life.

In the last two weeks, social media platforms and newspapers sympathetic to the renewal agenda have churned out editorials questioning Tsvangirai’s leadership style and his relationships with women.

But a trusted source close to Tsvangirai told SW Radio Africa on Thursday that the former Premier in the unity government is ‘unfazed’ by the attacks.

‘I met mudhara (Tsvangirai) this week and he was laughing about the media blitz against him. He said they are wasting their time and even described the disciplinary tribunal against him by the Biti camp as rubbish.

‘People in the party, family and friends worry of the scale of the onslaught that he is facing and the potential damage that it can do. But his apparent lack of panic makes the renewal team members panic more and think of others plots,’ said the source.

Charlton Hwende, a Tsvangirai loyalist and senior party member, said the media campaign against their leader is hypocrisy.

‘The attacks on Tsvangirai’s relations with women are hypocritical because those from the renewal team are not angels themselves. They are super-womanizers and I know it.

‘Recently I wrote on my Facebook wall threatening to spill the beans on members of the renewal team about their affairs and my inbox nearly burst with private messages from the same people begging me not to do it. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones,’ Hwende said.

SW Radio Africa is reliably informed that a popular UK based online newspaper has had to shelve a story, for now, on one of the top members of the renewal team after appeals that the article would ‘wreck’ his marriage and political career.