ZANU PF politburo member and former Midlands governor, Cephas Msipa says there is a plot by a faction within the party to sideline him in the province.
Stephen Chadenga OWN CORRESPONDENT
The Midlands has been ravaged by factionalism in the past few months following divisive elections late last month.
Msipa told Southern Eye on the sidelines of a CG Msipa Scholarship Trust press conference in Gweru on Friday that warring factions in Zanu PF were threatening to tear the part apart.
He said he was angered by a faction in the province, which he said was always working “day and night” to position itself to the detriment of the party’s unity in the province.
He made sensational claims that the faction (without naming it) had “nocturnal” meetings to sideline him and other senior party officials in the province from holding key positions.
A Zanu PF Midlands Provincial Coordinating Committee meeting was last Saturday abandoned after a fierce quarrel on who should occupy the deputy provincial chairperson and other posts in the provincial executive.
“We have serious factionalism in the province with one group occupied with positioning themselves,” Msipa said.
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“They have had meetings to scheme the sidelining of Msipa, Rugare Gumbo (party spokesperson), Francis Nhema and Flora Bhuka.
“Unfortunately for them, we have had people from the group coming to tell us about the sinister plot.”
“Such people are causing divisions in the province hence the reason why I walked out of the provincial coordinating committee meeting.”
Two camps, one reportedly aligned to Vice-President Joice Mujuru and the other to Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, openly clashed over the election of the provincial executive.
The provincial elections, held last December were marred by chaos which saw provincial affairs minister, Jason Machaya, believed to be a prodigy of Mujuru beating Mnangagwa’s Larry Mavhima for the chairman’s post.
Mavhima, however, went on to appeal against the results which he claimed were a “shame” and had been “rigged.”
At the Zanu PF 14th Annual National People’s Conference in December last year, President Robert Mugabe attacked senior officials for fanning factionalism.
“You can’t therefore say these people are mine, these are that one’s.
That is the thinking that causes factionalism.
“That must go. We can’t build a united party when we divide people into camps,” he said then.
