Zapu backs federalism

Dabengwa, a prominent war veteran and former Zanu PF Politburo member, said his Zapu supports devolution of power and not separatism. The separatism agenda is being pushed by the extremist Mthwakazi Liberation Front which is agitating for the rise of the Ndebele State to give the region autonomy from central government on charges of marginalisation.

“Zapu wishes to make known its position concerning the much-talked-about secession of Matabeleland from the rest of Zimbabwe, as demanded by the MLF,” Dabengwa said in a statement.

“Zapu has been approached by several journalists wanting to know our position on the MLF or the secession of Matabeleland. It is clear that the journalists seem to believe that Zapu is behind, or at least sympathetic to, the issue of secession of Matabeleland. This is both false and unfair.”

Dabengwa, a former Home Affairs minister, who pulled out of Zanu PF to form Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn together with Simba Makoni and later formed Zapu, said his party backed the unity option. “For starters, Zapu is the founder and authentic liberation movement of Zimbabwe, and has no intention of reducing itself to a tribal or separatist movement. We went to war to liberate all of Zimbabwe, which we achieved in 1980 together with the people of Zimbabwe and the splinter liberation movement Zanu-PF,” Dabengwa said.

“Our party is different from the rest in that it has a new, fair and democratic governance system called devolution of power. Devolution brings development and removes all bottlenecks and red tape created by the current Harare-based centralist governance system,” he said. Dabengwa said calls for secession were being fuelled by the simmering Gukurahundi issue – when troops massacred over 20,000 Ndebele speaking people in the 80s that backed President Mugabe’s political opposition,

Zapu then led by Joshua Nkomo.

“Zapu stands ready to be part of the solution to divisive matters such as Gukurahundi. We were the victims. We are the victims. We are the survivors. Only we can tell our story.”