/ 29 January 2007

MDC leader offers to quit if party requires

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has offered to step down if his party feels he has failed to deliver, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Monday.

It quoted the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as saying some members of his national executive are accusing him of being a stumbling block.

”Some people said I have failed and I told them to look for another leader,” Tsvangirai told a political rally in Harare on Sunday.

”If Tsvangirai is a stumbling block [then] let him go. This should apply to all leaders, even at provincial level.”

Tsvangirai said he will this year resort to ”dictatorship” in weeding out non-performers from his party.

”If I ask you to jump, you do not just jump, but you should ask ‘how high?’,” he said.

He said he had the power to fire those who were calling for his resignation while stressing that he could only be ejected by the party’s congress.

”I can fire you right now. But as for myself, I can only be fired at the next congress,” he said. — Sapa