Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti survived a suspected assassination attempt Sunday morning after his Harare house was hit by an explosive object.

 
By Nkosana Dlamini, Harare
 
His party said Sunday that the incident caused a “dent” on the perimeter wall and no-one was injured. It’s unknown who’s behind the attack.
 
Harare police spokesman Inspector James Sabau told the local media they had not received any report yet from the minister.
 
‘Blocking loans’
The assault comes after President Robert Mugabe verbally attacked the shrewd lawyer turned finance minister for starving off the country’s agricultural sector with enough cash and blocking the use of a US$250 million IMF loan to the country.
 
“Biti is even trying to grab some of the Presidential powers in various ways. We now want this Global Political Agreement to go and this should happen this year,” Mugabe told a party meeting last week.
 
Siphoning funds
Biti, a top aide to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has further introduced strict policies that have prevented the continued siphoning of the country’s funds by President Mugabe’s influential officials.
 
His party has not blamed anyone so far for the attack but called for a “thorough investigation” into the incident adding that the party “does not take this attack lightly given that there have been increasing criticisms and verbal attacks on Hon Biti lately.”
 
Biti is the second most powerful official in the Prime Minister’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and is viewed a potential future President to Zimbabwe.
 
State sponsored violence
He is among MDC officials who were resisting a coalition with Mugabe’s party after the veteran leader, who lost the first round poll to arch rival Tsvangirai, muscled his way back into power through two months of State sponsored violence.
 
As party chief negotiator in the ongoing talks to deal with issues outstanding since the coalition government was formed 2009, Biti has been fighting for the removal of the country’s partisan security commanders, who are blamed for rampant rights abuses and open bias towards Mugabe’s party.
 
Early results
A local weekly reported recently that the commanders had given Biti an ultimatum to award government workers a pay rise following a populist promise for a hike by Mugabe to the disgruntled workforce.
 

Biti says the country has no money to award the increase and has blamed Mugabe’s loyalists of siphoning the country’s rich diamond resources at the expense of the starving nation.
 
He was once charged with treason for pre-empting the outcome of Zimbabwe’s March 2008 elections, something observers believe he aimed at starving off any attempts to rig the poll by Mugabe and his party.