A forged letter purportedly from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s office has raised the ire of the PM and Malawian President Joyce Banda.
Tsvangirai has alleged ulterior motives to tarnish relations between him and recently installed Malawian president saying unknown elements had forged the letter inviting Africa’s second female leader to Zimbabwe.
Banda berated the unknown source of the letter on Wednesday during a 30-minute private discussion held with Tsvangirai on the sidelines of the launch of a book titled, Africa’s Third Liberation, in Johannesburg, South Africa, where both of them were special guests.
“The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office . . . Jameson Timba briefed both PM Tsvangirai and President Banda about a forged invitation letter to the Malawian President purportedly coming from the Prime Minister’s Office in Harare. President Banda described those behind the forged letter as pursuing ‘primitive politics’,” said the PM’s spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka.
He added that Tsvangirai said the plot explained why the people of Zimbabwe had engaged in a 13-year struggle to change such primitive politics. Tamborinyoka could, however, not speculate on the motive behind the forged letter or those who could have come up with it.
But analysts are smelling a rat, especially as Banda’s predecessor and rival Bingu waMutharika was a close ally of President Robert Mugabe, Tsvangirai’s political rival.
“The people who may have fraudulently originated the letter are probably aware of how Banda is inclined to become closer to Tsvangirai and their act may be a pre-emptive one to lessen the effects of such a development on their interests,” said political analyst Ernest Mudzengi.
