DEPUTY Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara “is not thinking about resigning”, it was claimed on Friday, as it emerged his MDC party may be prepared to expel him if he defies a party directive to stand down and accept a ministerial appointment.

Mutambara has been out of the country for more than a week, initially to attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which ran from January 26-30.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported that Mutambara had been in touch with President Robert Mugabe by phone to indicate he had no intention to resign. This came after Mugabe said the only way the Deputy Prime Minister would leave government was if he resigned.

“The gist of the conversation was that DPM Mutambara is not thinking about resigning. He is presently out of the country and will be back (in Zimbabwe) at the weekend or early next week,” the Herald reported, citing a source familiar with the discussion between the two men.

Mutambara lost leadership of the smaller faction of the MDC in January after Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube won his party’s vote.

The party’s national standing committee met soon after the congress which elected Ncube and decided to reassign Mutambara to the post of Regional Integration Minister – one of three ministerial portfolios the party controls in the coalition government – with Ncube taking over as Deputy Prime Minister. Priscilla Misihairabwi, currently Regional Integration Minister, would take over Ncube's old post.

Ncube told reporters this week that he had communicated the party’s decision to Mutambara but he had refused to accept the reassignment.

“I expect that he will be given a chance to get out of this situation otherwise defying the party’s decision of course can only result in one outcome – expulsion,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.