ZIMBABWE could have descended into a civil war shortly after independence had the late Vice- President Joshua Nkomo not signed the 1987 Unity Accord to end hostilities between his PF Zapu and Zanu PF, opposition Zapu leader, Dumiso Dabengwa (picture) has said.
Source: Dabengwa pays tribute to late VP Joshua Nkomo – NewsDay Zimbabwe October 31, 2016
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU/SILAS NKALA
Dabengwa made the remarks while addressing delegates at a memorial lecture for the late Zipra commanders Alfred Nikita Mangena and Lookout Masuku in Bulawayo last Friday.
He said Nkomo helped calm tempers among Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) veterans when President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF was goading Zapu into civil war through electoral fraud, rigging, and terrorising the party’s officers during the 1980 general elections.
Zipra was the military wing of Zapu.
“I want to suggest that Joshua Nkomo’s unwavering commitment to unity in the face of treachery and even personal humiliation is the main reason why this country did not go through civil war at attainment of independence,” Dabengwa said.
“Politicians with different egos would have used the massive forces at his disposal to refuse being relegated to seats in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, when they could challenge results elsewhere in the country.”
Masuku died at Parirenyatwa Hospital in 1986, after being released from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on treason charges.
The Supreme Court found Masuku, Dabengwa, and four others not guilty of treason charges in 1983, but they were detained nonetheless for four years.
The government later released Masuku due to poor health.
Mangena was killed in a Rhodesian army landmine attack in Kabanga near the Zambezi River in Zambia in 1978.
“Zanu PF kept a sizeable portion of its seasoned fighters outside the assembly points, while Zapu relied on the assurances of British administrators that, where violence was used to intimidate voters and create no-go areas, the election results would be annulled.
“No such annulment took place, with the result that even in areas previously dominated by Zipra the population was left at the mercy of Zanla that terrorised voters and restricted Zapu,” Dabengwa said.
“In spite of being the party whose supporters have received the most documented atrocities since independence, there is no support for our struggle to achieve true liberation as part of unfinished business of the struggle.”
Meanwhile, the newly-formed Lalangwe, Mbambangwe Memorial Trust, to honour and preserve Nkomo’s legacy has embarked on a major fund-raising programme for the project.
The trust, founded by ex-Zipra combatant, Linganiso Mdabuko Nyathi, has opened a bank account — named Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Memorial Trust, at Agribank Inala branch.
“We are calling for all political leaders and veterans of the war to support the memorial trust programme once it opens accounts in all provinces,” he said.
“Some of fighters are dead and we are still dying. What is going to be said about our purpose of going to war? I am praying for the veterans to support my vision of wishing to see every child in the country benefiting and having access to such knowledge from Grade One to higher levels of learning. Once the exercise of opening provincial accounts is done, we will open the national account and start fundraising for the construction of the memorial trust’s headquarters in Matobo District in Matabeleland South.”
He said some people have started donating towards the project.
Nyathi said he would soon be signing a memorandum of understanding with some local institutions to share information and technology, adding the trust would also set up a national tourism and hospitality school.
He said they will set up a heroes’ memorial library, which will capture the history of those who participated in the liberation struggle.
He joins several other former Zipra members to form various trusts in honour of the late Father Zimbabwe, who died of cancer in 1999.
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