Tendai Mugabe
Senior Reporter

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai reportedly held a private meeting with the head of Britain’s Department for International Development in Zimbabwe asking for funds to spearhead his election campaign.PM Tsvangirai and DFID head Mr Dave Fish had officiated at the launch of the Rural Water and Sanitation in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland South.

Mr Tsvangirai’s spokesperson Mr Luke Tamborinyoka, however, dismissed the reports.

“The Prime Minister never had such a meeting. He met Fish in Tsholotsho in the presence of Government officials, including Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo,” Mr Tamborinyoka said.
“There was no other meeting between the Prime Minister and Dave Fish other than the one at Mkhubazi School, anything else is fiction.”

The MDC-T is reportedly struggling to secure funding from its traditional donors after Western governments expressed reservations in Mr Tsvangirai’s leadership qualities.

A source yesterday said PM Tsvangirai and Mr Fish met in Bulawayo for close to an hour.
He said the MDC-T leader made a passionate plea with the British government to bankroll its election campaign.
Zimbabwe is set to hold its national elections this year. Mr Tsvangirai reportedly outlined the party’s financial woes hence the urgent need for capital injection.

“After completing Government business in Tsholotsho, the PM and Mr Fish had an hour’s long meeting in Bulawayo.
“During the meeting PM Tsvangirai said the inclusive Government has outlived its legal life span and elections were round the corner.
“He said his party was in urgent need for money to fund its election campaign,” said the source. The source added that Mr Tsvangirai also intimated that policy

differences among political parties in the inclusive Government rendered the whole system dysfunctional.
Mr Fish confirmed meeting Mr Tsvangirai saying they discussed various issues.

He said PM Tsvangirai had asked for more donor funding for various projects in Zimbabwe. Mr Fish said they discussed the recent visit to Zimbabwe by the International Monetary Fund’s officials.

“We discussed the IMF team visit looking at the Zimbabwean debt issue. The Prime Minister was keen to have donors increase their support to Zimbabwe,” he said.
Mr Fish said the Prime Minister indicated that President Mugabe had endorsed Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s debt strategy to manage Zimbabwe’s international debt.

He dismissed reports they discussed election funding adding that the British government had no “sufficient” confidence in the Zimbabwean Government. He said the current Government was a contested arrangement.
“We do not have sufficient confidence in the system of Government politically.

“The Government is contested but our government is keen to support the inclusive Government,” he said.
Mr Fish said they were working with Minister Biti on how Government could manage its budget systems.
“We have spent more money in Zimbabwe and we need more people to manage it.”

Mr Fish said the British government was funding a number of developmental projects in Zimbabwe.
Mr Tsvangirai has held several meetings with various Western leaders where discussions have been kept under wraps.
He recently met former Nato commander General Wesley Clark in another secret meeting during a visit to Europe.

He was reported to have met his donors disguised as “golf partners” during a family holiday in New York.