Msipa savages 'failing' Zanu PF, says Mugabe now needs help

Retired and hugely-respected Zanu-PF elder, Cephas Msipa, has broken his recent silence over Zimbabwe's deepening political and economic crises, saying candidly yesterday that President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF had failed the country badly.

Msipa - who fondly refers to Mugabe as muzukuru (Shona for nephew) - also said the embattled nonagenarian needed all the help Zimbabweans could give him, across the political divide, if the country was to be rescued from edge of the precipice where it had been for too long.

Despite Mugabe as "fundamentally" having good intentions, Msipa said not many positives could, however, be said about Zanu-PF, which he said was failing dismally to deliver the "milk and honey" the ruling party had promised Zimbabweans during the liberation struggle.

He added that although he had retired from active politics last year, he could not, however, bury his head "in the sand" when it was self-evident that the nation was "burning".

Msipa said that the worsening poverty levels in the country owing to the deteriorating socio-economic conditions could only be mitigated if Zanu-PF accepted that it had failed the people and all Zimbabweans put their heads together to come up with lasting solutions to the crises.