Zanu-PF dividing?

Armed police in Zimbabwe

Well, the Harare government's line is that the MDC assassins trained in Botswana tried to assassinate Perence Shiri, head of the Zimbabwe air force. Or, perhaps, that it's related to a violent struggle to control diamond fields - a struggle that has already seen many deaths. The Guardian. Maybe, too, that struggle is contributing to splits in Zanu-PF.

Furthermore, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association vice president Cde Joseph Chinotimba, who was involved in a car accident last week, is still in a local private hospital. ZWNews. By a curious coincidence Elliot Manyika, the Zanu PF political commissar died on Saturday following a road accident along the Zvishavane-Mbalabala road. ZWNews.

In Harare Police use teargas to disperse fighting ZANU PF factions (as Intra-party violence rocks Zanu-PF) - 17 December 2008 Riot police had to use teargas and water cannons yesterday to quell violence at the ruling ZANU PF party headquarters in Harare as rival camps clashed before an internal election to choose an executive for the party’s Harare province. The Zimbabwean.

The MDC says it's all a battle over succession:

In short, it is the unresolved issue of succession in Zanu PF that is at the root cause of the violence against Perence Shiri and the dislocation in Zanu PF. We saw this dislocation in November 2004 when wix provinc chairpersons were expelled after the failure of the Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Chinamasa failed debacle. That same crisis gave birth to Simba Makoni and the Mavambo/Kusile experiment and only this weekend, we saw the revival of Zapu and the election of Dumiso Dabengwa as national chairman.

In our view, there are so many individuals and factions vying to succeed the aged Mugabe. However, each of those factions has a control and influence on members of the army. Therefore, Zanu PF factionalism and unresolved succession battles are also being played out in the military junta. The arsenal used against Shiri could only have been owned and possessed by members of the Zimbabwe National Army.

And the result can only be the implosion of Zanu-PF - and the sooner it comes the less the suffering that will accompany it.

And control over the army is looking weaker and weaker:

'Just like everyone else, we have stomachs and families to feed. We are
suffering, just like most citizens in this country,' one junior officer Ola (not
his real name) tells Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Sitting in a house in Mbare township south-west of Harare in worn boots and faded fatigues, Ola, a 27-year-old father of two and Duke (not his real name), 29, tell of the
frustration that provoked their outburst.

'There is no junior army officer that still supports Mugabe. We are tired, we are suffering,' says Duke. 'If a foreign army comes to fight us, we will join them or flee to a neighbouring country.' The Zimbabwean

Of course, I am looking for anything that suggests the imminent end of the regime so these are deliberately tendentious clippings. Cholera continues to spread and claim lives. The war on the MDC continues unabated: News24. And ordinary life in Zimbabwe is hell for many people.