'I won't quit'

President Robert Mugabe, plagued by poor health which he denies, has plunged his deeply divided Zanu-PF further into crisis after his declaration that he would not leave, because the party would disintegrate if he quit.

Extensive interviews by the Sunday Times with senior Zanu-PF officials revealed there was renewed anger at Mugabe last week for announcing his determination to cling to power. The situation was made worse by controversial remarks made by a senior Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) commander who said Mugabe must remain in office until he dies.

In an interview with state media last week, Mugabe said he was not going to retire because Zanu-PF was in crisis and would collapse.

"Well, well, well. The party will find someone but you don't leave the party amid problems and in a crisis such as we have. You've got to get the party out of the crisis and then you can retire," he said.

"And also, the party needs me and we should not create weak points within the party. We must remain solid and in full gear. Once you have change, and if we had it now for example, the new man, or new woman - that might destroy the party for a while as it goes through transition. Any new leader needs time to consolidate, so we don't want to take risks at all," Mugabe said.

However, senior Zanu-PF politburo members said Mugabe's remarks were "shocking" and "divisive" and the statements would throw the party deeper into turmoil.

"The president's statements came as a shock to us even though we know he does not intend to retire, because they are divisive," a senior politburo member said. "This is going to worsen factionalism and divisions because his continued stay and failure to deal with the succession issue has created all these problems."

Members of the two Zanu-PF factions, led by retired army commander Solomon Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa, were in rare agreement that Mugabe's remarks would cause more internal strife.

"After reading that interview, we had a meeting with senior members of our group and everybody agreed that the president's remarks were troublesome and disruptive because they encourage infighting. When people don't know when a leader is going they will say let's keep ourselves organised and ready because in politics anything can happen any time," said a senior member of the Mujuru faction. "So what we are going to be doing is to keep lobbying to put on pressure behind the scenes and to gain a strategic position in this race."

A top member of the Mnangagwa faction said Mugabe's remarks condemned the party to "perpetual infighting". "These statements don't unite the party. Some think by saying he is not going that will keep the party united but it achieves exactly the opposite. It fuels internal power struggles and instability."

However, another party official said Mugabe was trying to keep warring factions at bay by publicly saying he is going nowhere. A close Mugabe loyalist, Didymus Mutasa, recently publicly admitted infighting in the party and told supporters of the two factions to stop the bickering and rally behind Mugabe. Mugabe also admitted the divisions last week.

Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo was unavailable for comment.

On Friday ZNA commander Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba said Mugabe must remain in office for life and elections must be held this year to ensure "political stability". He said the army wanted Mugabe to be president-for-life because he could not be replaced.

The combative army commander said senior military officers would never salute Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai even if he won the election.