ZIMBABWE’S opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was forced to cancel his planned return home yesterday after learning of a plot by President Robert Mugabe’s forces to kill him.

Tsvangirai had planned to launch his campaign today for next month’s run-off election for president with a rally in Bula-wayo that would have marked the start of what was billed as a nationwide “victory tour”.

As he was preparing to leave for Johannesburg airport at 8am yesterday to fly to Zimbabwe, he received a telephone call from a sympathiser within Mugabe’s state security apparatus, warning him that he would be assassinated. When he passed the details to his own security team, they refused to let him travel.

“He gets phone calls of threats every day but this was specific, a well-structured plan,” said George Sibotshiwe, Tsvangirai’s spokesman. “Politically and personally he desperately wanted to be back, but he’s no help to Zimbabweans dead.”

Tsvangirai now says he will not return to contest the elections on June 27 until he is provided personal security by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He also called on fellow African nations to provide peacekeepers to enable Zimbabweans to be able to vote without fear. Details of the assassination plan have been passed on to SADC to investigate. “We can’t do anything until we get to the bottom of the plot,” said Sibotshiwe.

The warning to Tsvangirai was backed up by an eyewitness report of a high-ranking police meeting at which it was stated that “due to the high level of tension and uncertainty, the police would not be in a position to guarantee security for Tsvangirai [at tomorrow’s rally]”.

The source interpreted this as a clear instruction that the police would not be allowed to provide him with any security.

Tsvangirai spent yesterday in meetings with senior members of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to decide how he can fight elections amid the regime’s ongoing campaign of terror. “There will never be a situation of no threat,” admitted one of his security advisers. “The question is how best to mitigate this.”

Among the issues being discussed was changing the nature of the campaign to small spontaneous meetings.

Despite the threats, Tsvangirai believes he has little choice but to contest the run-off even though he is convinced that he won outright the March 29 presidential election.

The run-off is due to take place almost three months after the March 29 presidential election, which Tsvangirai insists that he won outright. Although much delayed, official results showed Tsvangirai as winning the poll with 47.9% compared with Mugabe’s 43.2%. He did not pass the 50% threshold necessary to avoid a run-off.

Clearly infuriated by losing his first election in 28 years, Mugabe told a meeting of his ruling Zanu-PF on Friday that the elections had been “disastrous” and that the party should have been better prepared. “Although the presidential result did not yield an outright winner, it was indeed disastrous,” he said.

Last week the government announced that it was lifting import duties on basic foodstuffs for three months in what appears to be a blatant attempt to cut food prices during the election. The lifting of duties on cooking oil, rice, salt, margarine and other foods lasts only until August 12.

As in previous elections, the regime’s main electoral tool is intimidation. Within two weeks of the earlier poll, the regime unleashed a campaign of violence orchestrated by the military aimed at terrorising people to vote “correctly” in the second round. Hundreds have been beaten and flailed or had molten plastic poured onto their skin, and thousands more have had their homes burnt down.

The MDC says 32 of its activists have been killed.

A close associate of Mugabe said the president was determined to go to whatever lengths were necessary to stay in power. “He’s going for broke,” he said.

Tsvangirai has survived three assassination attempts, including one in 1997 by unidentified assailants who tried to throw him from a 10th-floor office window in Harare.

However, he has come under attack from his own supporters for spending the past five weeks out of the country while they have been beaten and tortured. “I think he should have come back and faced the threat,” said one. “By not coming back this means they [Mugabe’s regime] are in control and able to dictate the campaign.”

Many believe the climate of brutality is such that it is impossible to hold elections.

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