Murerwa jumped before being pushed-(15-02-07)

Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono on budgetary priorities, pushing for policies aimed at making the country acceptable to the international community to enhance trade opportunities while Mugabe and Gono put emphasis on agriculture.
Top sources in government said Murerwa had repeatedly crossed Mugabe’s path by his insistence on the need to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on the issues of Zimbabwe’s balance of payments.
“They had serious clashes and Murerwa was told by Mugabe that he either had to change his perception or quit,” a source said. “Murerwa faced a serious dilemma because Mugabe literally told him to practice something now called ‘political economics’.
“Murerwa tendered his resignation in December and Mugabe didn’t respond until he reshuffled his cabinet and quietly left him out.”
Murerwa is understood to have told Mugabe he believed mending bridges with the Bretton Wood Institutions and the rest of the international community was one of the few options the country had and which could end economic recession – now in its seventh year – and start to move towards a recovery.
This, Mugabe dismissed as textbook economics and the embattled Zanu (PF) leader has been repeating his mantra about sanctions by the West as being the cause for Zimbabwe’s economic problems. Mugabe has also used national events such as burial of heroes to fire broadsides at the IMF and Bretton Wood Institutions, accusing them of “working for imperialists to suppress the developing world.
“At one point Mugabe was very furious when he discovered that Murerwa was engaged in discussions with representatives of the European Union,” a source said.
Although publicly denied by both Gono and Murerwa, signs of bad blood between the two were increasingly evident as they consistently clashed on policy issues.- Itai Dzamara