'Zanu-PF in turmoil,' says Politburo member

ZANU-PF politburo member Cephas Msipa has described the situation in Zanu-PF as chaotic, as a push to purge Vice-President Joice Mujuru gathers momentum.

Msipa, one of the few senior Zanu-PF members to openly back Mujuru, says he is now at a loss as to what is happening in the party, warning that a faction of the war veterans' association may be overstepping their bounds.

"I do not know where they are getting their source of power and what they want to achieve," he said.

"There is too much chaos and I do not know really."

This follows a charge by a group of war veterans that Msipa, who has been vocal on the drama in Zanu-PF, was not an ex-freedom fighter and should not tell the war veterans what to do.

"Zimbabwe is not made up of a few war veterans," Msipa said.

"The majority of people respect me wherever I go and that makes me happy.

"I just want to be left alone to go about my life."

Victor Mutematanda, a senior member of the Zimbabwe National War Veterans' Association said Msipa must act like someone who had retired from active politics and stop commenting on what was happening in Zanu-PF.

Anyone who is seen as aligned to Mujuru has faced the wrath of a section of the party, which is hell bent on ensuring the vice- president and her sympathisers are booted out of government and Zanu-PF.

Mutematanda told State media that Msipa must not tell them what to do. If he wanted, then he should have participated in the armed struggle.

In another interview, Mutematanda claimed Msipa had been quiet all along, but when factionalism started, he became "active like a young man, no he must rest".

Msipa was a senior Zapu member and was part of the party's national committee.

The politburo member said he, like others, had become mere spectators and they no longer knew what was happening in the party.

"In this drama I am more of an observer than anything else, so I am observing," Msipa said. "Time will tell, I am at a loss, I do not know what is happening."