( dpa )- A senior member of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabes politburo Saturday publicly backed rebel former finance minister Simba Makoni when he launched his presidential campaign in the city of Bulawayo.
Makoni claimed he wanted "leadership change" rather than regime change in Zimbabwe, state radio reported. He was flanked by politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa, the first senior ruling ZANU-PF party member openly to throw his weight behind Makoni.
In claims that will surely anger Mugabe, Dabengwa said he was part of a "team" in ZANU-PF that wanted a candidate other than the longtime leader for the March 29 polls.
Makoni, a former executive secretary of SADC, has always maintained top ZANU-PF officials secretly back the rebel minister's challenge to the 84-year-old president.
"Comrade Dabengwa told the meeting that following the failure of his team in ZANU-PF to field a candidate against comrade Mugabe, they then decided to field Dr Makoni as a candidate," the radio said.
Only a day earlier, at the official launch of Mugabe's election campaign in Harare, Vice President Joseph Msika had denied that he, Dabengwa, ZANU-PF national chairman John Nkomo or the second vice president, Joyce Mujuru and her powerful ex-army commander husband, were behind Makoni. "They want to divide us," Msika said then.
There have been reports in the private press that Dabengwa refused to sign papers formally nominating Mugabe as the ruling party's presidential candidate.
Makoni shocked Mugabe and many Zimbabweans when he announced last month he was standing against the president, until then widely expected to win. Civic leaders and businessmen also attended Makoni's launch, the report said.
Also challenging Mugabe is main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a former trade unionist who lost by less than 500,000 votes in the last presidential polls in 2002.
Makoni has a head start in Bulawayo because a smaller faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has its support base in the province, has said it will back the former finance minister and not Tsvangirai.
Makoni complained this week that Zimbabwe was a "nation full of fear."