A wealthy businessman put himself forward for one of the most dangerous jobs in Africa yesterday, seeking to depose Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe.

Simba Makoni, a former Finance Minister sacked as an “economic saboteur” for suggesting that Zimbabwe should devalue its currency, announced that he would run against Mr Mugabe in presidential elections due next month.

The move was hailed as the boldest internal challenge for 20 years to the man who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

At a stroke, a campaign expected to rubberstamp another five-year term for Zimbabwe’s de facto President-for-life was thrown open. A breakaway faction of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change threw its weight behind Mr Makoni’s challenge. He will stand as an independent candidate because party rules mean that he faces automatic expulsion from the ruling Zanu (PF) party.

Mr Makoni, who is untainted by the corruption and brutality associated with the party, told reporters that he had won the backing of several prominent officials. Their names would be revealed when he unveiled his manifesto in the coming week.

“I know I will not be in this campaign alone. There will be many of us, a great many of us,” he said. He shared “the agony and anguish of all citizens that we have all endured for nearly ten years” and blamed “the failure of national leadership”.

He said that the overwhelming majority of ruling party supporters had been hoping that a special congress of the party in December would have brought change in the party’s leadership. In the event it failed after Mr Mugabe manipulated the meeting to ensure that he was the only candidate.

Soon after Mr Makoni’s announcement Arthur Mutambara, leader of one of the two factions of the MDC, said that he would support him, adding significant impetus to his challenge. Efforts to unite the MDC before the elections failed at the weekend.

Political circles have been buzzing with excitement over rumours that he was about to take on Mr Mugabe. The challenge is expected to heighten the appetite for change among a people crushed by the disintegration of the country’s economy.

The MDC, which was brutalised and cheated of victory by Mr Mugabe in each of three elections since 2000, is now suffering a fatal split that will divide its vote in presidential, parliamentary and local government elections on March 29. “It’s a dramatic announcement,” said Eldred Masunungure, a University of Zimbabwe political scientist.

“This will throw the elections wide open. Zanu (PF) has been taken by surprise. The thirst for change is there but Makoni had better be prepared for Zanu (PF)’s viciousness. This is not going to be a tea party.” Mr Makoni, 57, a committed Christian, is a respected figure within Zanu(PF) and has the power to spoil Mr Mugabe’s determination to hold on for another five years — making him 89 when his term ended — by appealing to the frustration of a deeply disenchanted party.

He is seen as allied to a faction within Zanu (PF) led by a former army commander, Solomon Mujuru, whose wife, Joice, is Mr Mugabe’s VicePresident, appointed in 2005 as a potential successor. Mr Mugabe turned against them last year when he discovered that the Mujuru faction was quietly preparing for a new leadership to take the country out of its catastrophic decline and block his plans for yet another term as President.

Critics argue that Mr Makoni lacks the stamina to take on one of Africa’s most brutal leaders. He became the country’s youngest Cabinet minister when he was appointed at the age of 32 in 1982, but was fired in 2002 after proposing devaluation as a way of easing the country’s economic plight.Zimbabwe has dire shortages of fuel, foreign currency and basic foodstuffs and its shattered economy is creaking under the highest inflation rate in the world. Critics pin the blame on Mr Mugabe who embarked on a radical land reform programme in 2000, seizing white-owned farms.

Internal challenger

— Simba Makoni studied chemistry at Leeds and Leicester universities, taking a PhD before returning to Zimbabwe and joining Mugabe's fight against colonial rule

— He held senior positions in the ministries of Agriculture, Youth and Energy. He left in 1984 to work for the Southern African Development Community

— Returning to Zimbabwe, Makoni was appointed head of state-controlled news group Zimbabwe Newspapers in 1994

— In 2000 he was made Finance Minister but his promised economic recovery never materialised

— State media reported his resignation in 2002. He has since pressed for devaluation

Sources: Agencies; Times archive

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