The former leaders said on Thursday they would be holding a convention next month to choose an interim leadership to steer the revival of PF ZAPU and convene a congress by March next year.
In a statement they said all political structures of PF ZAPU incorporated into ZANU PF at the signing of a unity accord with Mugabe’s party in 1987 will in the meantime cease to operate under the title ZANU PF and resume the title of ZAPU and that all structures operate under the authority of the Constitution of ZAPU.
The statement added: The district councils should meet to prepare for and convene a consultative conference consisting of the 10 provinces by December 2008, for the purpose of electing an interim executive charged with the responsibility to mobilise and restructure the party and convene the party’s congress by March 2009.
According to sources, Dumiso Dabengwa, a former senior member of ZANU PF and Mugabe’s Cabinet is leading the revival of PF ZAPU and is strongly tipped to be chosen leader by the party congress.
Other former senior PF ZAPU members pushing for the revival of the party include Welshman Mabhena (former ZAPU secretary general), former war veterans’ leader Andrew Ndlovu, former government minister Thenjiwe Lesabe, Effort Nkomo and Tryphine Nhliziyo.
Nkomo and Nhliziyo are presently spokesman and secretary for administration for ZANU PF for Bulawayo province respectively.
The breaking away of PF ZAPU or even that of a significant number of its former leaders – coming about 10 months after former finance minister Simba Makoni also pulled out of ZANU PF – appears to suggest things could be slowly falling apart for Mugabe’s party after years of internal fighting over the veteran leader’s succession. Â
Makoni, a respected businessman and former diplomat, rebelled against Mugabe to challenge the 84-year-old leader in last March’s presidential election.
ZANU PF later said it had expelled Makoni, who contested the March 29 presidential election as an independent but lost. He is working to form his own political party.
But it would be the pulling out of PF ZAPU or some of its former leaders that could shake ZANU PF to the foundations. Mugabe’s party has always used its 1987 Unity Accord with PF ZAPU to justify its claim that it enjoys the support of Zimbabweans across the country.
PF ZAPU and its late leader Joshua Nkomo drew most of their support from the southern Matabeleland and Midlands provinces while Mugabe and ZANU PF are strong in the northern parts of the country.
Top ZANU PF official and government Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, who is also a former ZAPU member, was quick to deny the party had withdrawn from ZANU PF and insisted the Unity Accord was still holding firmly.
He said: “Some claim they have pulled out of the Unity Accord but Vice President Joseph Msika, John Nkomo (all former ZAPU) and myself are still part of the agreement so where is the pull-out when all the senior PF ZAPU leaders are still in ZANU PF.”
But a former army colonel Ray Ncube, who is coordinating the revival of PF ZAPU, told ZimOnline: “The party has been revived and I can confirm that there is a management committee that is organising a convention that will lead to the holding of a congress where a leadership will be elected before the end of the year.”
PF ZAPU and ZANU PF fought a bitter 1970s guerrilla war to free Zimbabwe from colonial rule. The two allies formed a government of national unity at independence in 1980 but soon fell out when then Prime Minister Mugabe accused PF ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo and his party of plotting an armed insurrection against him.
More than 20 000 innocent civilians from the Ndebele ethnic minority that mostly supported PF ZAPU are believed to have been killed in the early 1980s during a bloody counter-insurgency drive by the army ordered by Mugabe in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.
The killings by the army’s North Korean trained 5th Brigade only stopped with the signing of the Unity Accord when Nkomo agreed to merge his party into ZANU PF while he took up the post of vice-president in government.
ZANU PF has ruled Zimbabwe since taking power at the country’s independence from Britain 28 years ago.
But the party saw its grip on power severely weakened after managing to win only 99 seats against 110 won by the two factions of the opposition MDC in the March elections.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai also defeated Mugabe in a parallel presidential election although the opposition chief failed to secure the margin required to takeover power.
Tsvangirai later withdrew from a June 27 run-off election in protest against state-sponsored violence against his supporters, leaving Mugabe to win the vote uncontested.
However, Western and some African governments refused to recognise Mugabe’s controversial re-election and the veteran leader was forced to agree a power-sharing deal with Tsvangirai under which he would cede some of his powers to the MDC leader to be appointed prime minister in a government of national unity.
But Tsvangiria has accused Mugabe of allocating all the key ministries to his ZANU PF party and the opposition leader says he and his MDC party will not participate in an inclusive government that Mugabe is expected to appoint anytime soon. – ZimOnline
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