A ZANU PF MP fingered as the source of an astonishing attack on the party after the whistle blower website WikiLeaks posted a cable with his surname, only to remove it later, has pleaded his innocence as the party plots to move against him.

In a February 2010 cable by the United States ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray, a senior Zanu PF official is quoted as telling the envoy that the party was “badly fractured”, adding that “it was like a stick of TNT, susceptible to ignition and disintegration.”

Although WikiLeaks made attempts to conceal the identity of the official, he was inadvertently revealed to be “Mudarikwa” in a part of the cable which survived the censorship.

Party sources say the only significant Zanu PF official named Mudarikwa, and whose opinions would interest the United States, would be the MP for Uzumba, Simba Mudarikwa.

After Zanu PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo signalled that the party's politburo would meet on Wednesday to decide on the matter, Simba Mudarikwa has been forced to issue a denial that he is the official named.

“I have never met the ambassador,” he protested. “Actually I don't know him. However, there are many Mudarikwas who belong to the party (Zanu PF), some are chairpersons while others hold other posts in the party.”

The official is reported as telling Ray in the classified cable that Zanu PF “was holding together because of the threat of MDC-T and foreign pressure”.

“He likened Zanu PF to a troop of baboons incessantly fighting among themselves, but coming together to face an external threat,” Ambassador Ray wrote.

“New leadership was essential and would emerge as some of the old timers, including Robert Mugabe, left the scene. Mudarikwa opined that Vice President Joice Mujuru or S.K. Moyo (former ambassador to South African and now party chair) were possibilities, although Mujuru’s fear of Mugabe was affecting her ability to lead,” the uncensored cable, later pulled, said.

Although WikiLeaks has promised to censor details that may endanger the lives of human rights campaigners and individuals from intolerant regimes named in the cables, the apparent slip in the voluntary censorship will embolden its opponents who accuse the website of being irresponsible.

So far, leaked cables from the United States’ Harare embassy have revealed former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, now Prime Minister, as a strong United States ally who routinely discusses political strategy and receives advice from the superpower regarded as “hostile” by President Robert Mugabe.

The South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said this week that the revelations by WikiLeaks had the potential to destabilise Zimbabwe and the region ahead of elections planned for next year.

“For southern Africa, the WikiLeaks Zimbabwe revelations are most significant, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say they could destabilise Zimbabwe,” said Liesl Louw-Vaudran of the ISS.

“I am not saying WikiLeaks did not have the right to make the information public. I am merely exploring the possible ramifications now that this information is out there.

“We are sitting with a very tense situation, very delicate, where we’ve got a dictator now for the last 25 years here in Africa, absolutely insistent that any opposition to him is being instigated by the West. He now has that on paper, and it is very dangerous."