The Financial Gazette

Njabulo Ncube, Assistant Editor

ZAPU revivalists at the weekend forged ahead with their controversial congress despite a pending High Court application seeking to stop them from using the name and logo of the late vice president Joshua Nkomo’s liberation party. Upon his unanimous endorsement as the first president of the revived party, Dumiso Dabengwa, the former minister of home affairs, who had a brief flirtation with Simba Makoni’s Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn, declared that ZAPU strove to be the official opposition party come next elections.
Addressing ZAPU delegates after a three-day elective congress in Bulawayo, he said the party, whose other pioneers moved over to ZANU-PF following the signing of the Unity Accord between President Robert Mugabe and the late Father Zimbabwe in 1987, was already strategising for the next polls to be held between 2011 and 2013.
The former ZIPRA intelligence supremo added that before the end of the year ZAPU would have nominated candidates to contest in the elections.
“Before the end of the year, all provinces should have identified their candidates so that we do not have fly-by-night politicians who want to buy votes,” said Dabengwa.
Dabengwa also revealed that the party would be advocating for the devolution of power, saying in line with the devolution concept, party members from all provinces should identify candidates they want to represent them at constituency and provincial levels.
But questions abound whether Dabengwa, who is yet to convince the generality of the population that he is his own man and not a ZANU-PF functionary, can mould ZAPU into a formidable and viable opposition party to challenge ZANU-PF and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) presently in a power-sharing truce.
Is Dabengwa the Matabeleland-anointed politician to fill the big shoes left by the late Father Zimbabwe who succumbed to cancer in 2001? Can the new party and its supporters withstand the challenges experienced by the MDC since its formation in 1999?
These are some of the questions arising as debate intensifies over ZAPU’s foray into the murky waters of Zimbabwe’s politics.
Analysts this week viewed the coming on stream of ZAPU as a positive development for democracy in Zimbabwe, saying a multi-party democracy was always an ideal in a progress-seeking nation.
ZAPU was a long-awaited third way, others said, adding that the two formations of the MDC had disappointed as there had done little to change the political landscape still dominated by President Mugabe and ZANU-PF despite the formation of a government of national unity. 
Trevor Maisiri, the executive director of Africa Reform Institute, a Harare-based political think-tank, said in order for ZAPU to be effective in Zimbabwean politics there were a few considerations that the party needed to take into account in their political intentions.
Firstly, in as much as political space is not exclusive, Zimbabwean politics has a unique strand that makes political entrance not as conventional as in other landscapes.
ZAPU must therefore realise that Zimbabwean politics is at a transitional stage and there are already other political forces that have braved the political environment in order to bring the country to where it is today.
“ZAPU must therefore consider how it will rather edify this transitional process than cause a dissipation of the total pro-democracy efforts. In this regard, the party must immediately seek to establish alliances with other eminent political forces in order to challenge the dominance of ZANU-PF. Currently, the MDC-M is faced with challenges of internal reforms, which are likely to weaken rather than strengthen the party,” said Maisiri.
Secondly, ZAPU must evolve itself into a national entity without over-emphasis on regional dominance.
The credibility of the party will be based on its capacity to avoid the temptation of regional concentration and evolve into a national outfit. The party, analysts say, must not over-dwell on historical misfortunes but must prove to Zimbabweans that it has relevance to the socio-economic and political needs of the nation by intentionally developing a practical, strategic and sound framework for resolution.
“The party will definitely face challenges if it is to enter the current political scenario head-long,” Maisiri said.
Maisiri felt that ZAPU might be more effective in the post-transitional political period rather than in the short-to-medium term, saying the party still needed to build credibility and confidence with Zimbabweans first.
“Zimbabweans have of late become so exhausted and suspicious of new political parties given the multiplicity of political agendas that most of them have exhibited. In that case it is also the consistency over time that will build the party’s credibility…The party needs to adopt a clear political ideology to which all their members including the leadership are subservient to. In this way no individual becomes more powerful than the institution of the party,” he said.
The alleged friction between MDC-M leader and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara and secretary general Welshman Ncube, is also likely to cause massive damage to the party. This would likely be an advantage upon which ZAPU can marginally leverage on, according to analysts. But this will not bring much movement because MDC-M itself seemed to have lost some ground in Matabeleland due to a skewed political framework and identity. So ZAPU will not gain much from the MDC-M’s lapse. Takura Zhangazha, an independent political analyst, said ZAPU and its leaders had a constitutional right to seek and challenge for political office or power. He however, cautioned that it would be slightly over ambitious on ZAPU’s part to think it would have a national impact in the immediate future.
“Their political project is essentially a long-term one that will seek to maximise regional political interests as a key rallying point for political support,” he said.
Zhangazha said the fact that the theme of the ZAPU congress related to the devolution of power means that the party is keen on angling on regional interest as a key rallying point for political support.
“I don’t think this particular departure point has potential support for national success on their part.It will make them a party that will appear to have particularly narrow interests that seek reconfiguration of local government in Zimbabwe,” said Zhangazha.
He said in any future election ZAPU would probably seek to gain the Matabeleland vote, which would further divide the opposition vote from that region. This may be to ZANU-PF’s advantage, he noted.
“Or it can also reduce the latter’s vote count in the same, which may end up to MDC’s advantage. ZAPU will not be like Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn because it has a much narrowed and singular agenda, which is devolution. Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn was a bit broader and much more nationalistic at inception,” Zhangazha added.
Phillip Pasirayi, the coordinator of the Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe, said ZAPU could face problems in garnering votes within the Matabeleland region, let alone nationally.
“The leaders of the revived ZAPU party, the likes of Dabengwa, have literally been in bed with ZANU-PF for a long time and by pandering to the whims of ZANU-PF, they alienated themselves from the people,” said Pasirayi. He charged that Dabengwa and his crop of revivalists were completely out of touch with reality.
“They have a mountain to climb to convince the people that they are exorcised of ZANU-PF demons. They are mistaken to think that they can ride on the regional issues such as lack of development projects in Matabeleland.”
“The people are now clever and they know that it is the same ZAPU leaders that were in complicity with ZANU-PF in marginalising people, especially the people of Matabeleland for a few pieces of silver,” he said.
But Methuseli Moyo, the spokesperson for ZAPU, charged that those belittling the new kid on Zimbabwe’s political block were doing so at their own peril.
“ZAPU is the authentic and founder of the liberation of Zimbabwe and therefore has the right experience during the struggle, the 1980s disturbances and during unity with ZANU-PF on how to tread on the Zimbabwe landscape,” said Moyo. The bombastic ZAPU spokesperson said it was foolhardy to malign Dabengwa as well as to accuse ZAPU of seeking to be party spoilers.
Moyo said ZAPU and Dabengwa had a long history with liberation movements in the Southern African Development Community (SA-DC), namely South Africa’s African National Congress, Namibia’s SWAPO, Angola’s MPLA and Mozambique’s FRELIMO and their leadership.
“No one in SADC or Africa would have a problem with a ZAPU government taking over. I am sure people will agree… Ours is a party with both experience and youth and is able to match ZANU-PF in every respect when push comes to shove.
“As seen during congress, we have support from all the provinces of Zimbabwe,” said the ZAPU spokesman.

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