Harare — HAWKS in ZANU-PF are sharpening their knives against Tourism and Hospitality Minister, Walter Mzembi, who they suspect could be switching allegiance to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) after accompanying Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on his maiden trip to Europe and the United States.

Mzembi is part of the Premier's high-powered delegation on a three-week mission to re-engage a skeptical international community that has been withholding aid and lines of credit from the country despite the consummation of a unity government between President Robert Mugabe and his long time rival and MDC-T leader, Tsvangirai.

But in what exposes the deepening mistrust in ZANU-PF and the residual resistance in the party against the coalition, daggers have been drawn for the Masvingo South legislator for embarking on the trip despite it being sanctioned by the President and Cabinet.

Mzembi is the only person from ZANU-PF in the mission after Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, another ZANU-PF appointee, was denied a visa to travel with the delegation.

Leading the onslaught against Mzembi are war veterans, a constituency that normally comes in handy for ZANU-PF when the party wants to quell dissent.

The boisterous war veterans, who led the chaotic land reform programme in 2000, were instrumental in securing ZANU-PF's previous election victories.

This time the war veterans, who are being backed by some senior members of ZANU-PF, said they were planning countrywide demonstrations, starting in Mzembi's hometown of Masvingo, to influence the party's leadership to oust the minister from office.

Joseph Chinotimba, the war veterans' deputy chairman, this week accused Mzembi of betraying the party and fighters of the country's liberation struggle.

The war veterans have been at loggerheads with Mzembi who is seen as one of the progressive forces in ZANU-PF ever since he was appointed Tourism Minister on February 13.

In April, Mzembi clashed with Chinotimba when he blasted the war veterans' leader for continuing to tarnish the country's image through renewed farm disturbances at a time Zimbabwe is trying to attract tourists ahead of the 2010 World Cup to be hosted by South Africa.

"War veterans are not happy with Mzembi. We have written to him about his conduct, but he has not yet responded. We are going to demand that the party (ZANU-PF) recalls him as a last resort. We had decided not to fight him in the papers anymore, but instead confront him directly and we think it was good for him that he was thrown out of the meetings with (United States) President Barack Obama," said Chinotimba.

"We can't work with him either as ZANU-PF or as war veterans. I don't think he is still ZANU-PF and he seems not to be interested in ZANU-PF anymore. We are going to take action against him over his new stance."

Mzembi was barred from White House because of his affiliation to ZANU-PF. This has drawn the ire of the party which is accusing Washington of double standards in its dealings with the inclusive government.

The Tourism Minister, who piggybacked his way into politics through his relative, the late nationalist Eddison Zvobgo, seemed unperturbed by the war veterans' manoeuvres.

In a recent interview with SW Radio Africa Mzembi said he will not be bothered by a few people who are against progress.

"This programme that we are embarking on is a programme that has detractors across the party divide, but it has very little critical mass in the country, maybe five percent or so of the people ... out of the entire nation do speak like that.

"But they do speak like that because they are not part of this trip. If they were part of this trip, they would be busy working. So I'm not going to pay attention to people who have nothing else to do than to walk the streets of Harare looking for and pursuing negativities.

"I am here (on the trip) with Cabinet authority from the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, his Excellency Comrade Mugabe. He's the one who approves these trips, so he is the one who has deployed me here with the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Richard Morgan Tsvangirai, as the head of delegation so that debate (over why he was on the trip) is misplaced.

"It is the debate of shallow minds. I'm hearing that through various telephone calls that I get here from kumusha (back home) and online news. It is a debate that is in the minds of very, very shallow people in my country who seek to press self-destructive buttons all the time at the expense of the national interest," said Mzembi.

Mzembi is seen as one of the reform-minded young turks in ZANU-PF. He has a strong power base in Masvingo where he once chaired the party's District Coordinating Committee before being suspended in 2004 for undermining the party's leadership.

He bounced back into the limelight leveraging his political fortunes on the pro-Zvobgo faction whose members included Dzikamai Mavhaire.

ZANU-PF insiders this week said heavyweights within the party were setting traps on Mzembi.

"You see, the Prime Minister is asked to draw a list of people he would like to travel with and then it is approved by Cabinet. But what Mzembi doesn't realise is that it is a way of identifying those in ZANU-PF close to the Prime Minister. Questions arose in our circles. Why him and why is he not on the sanctions list ever since he became deputy minister?"

The premier's delegation is on a tour to request the lifting of what western countries say are targeted sanctions against President Mugabe and his inner circle but which the Zimbabwean government contends are hurting the ordinary people.

So far, the delegation has been to the US, German, Sweden and Holland. The team is yet to visit Britain, France and Belgium.

While Zimbabwe needs US$8,3 billion to revamp the battered economy, the US has pledged US$73 million and Germany 20 million euros in support of the inclusive government's reconstruction initiatives.