via Bulawayo24 NEWS | Zapu ‘should think twice’ says Zanu-PF 31 December 2013
PRESIDENTIAL Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa yesterday declared that the Zapu properties confiscated after independence now belonged to Zanu PF, setting the stage for a bruising fight with the party founded by late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo.
Zapu, which broke away from Zanu PF in 2008 led by former politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa, on Sunday had declared that any conditions to reunite the two parties should include the return of properties seized by President Robert Mugabe’s government soon after independence.
This followed a December 22 plea by Mugabe for those who abandoned the Unity Accord to rejoin Zanu PF.
The 89-year-old spoke when he unveiled Nkomo’s statue in Bulawayo where he revealed, that the divisions make him “cry”.
Zapu then listed the refusal to return its properties confiscated after independence as one of the reasons its members pulled out of the Unity Accord.
The seized properties include buildings in Bulawayo, farms and motels.
However, Mutasa said the matter of Zapu properties left in Zambia at independence was discussed during the Unity Accord talks and Dabengwa was tasked with repatriating them to Zimbabwe.
“As for those properties in the country, when they talk about them being returned to Zapu, they must think twice because we have our national chairman (Simon Khaya Moyo) and others who are in Zanu PF under the Unity Accord,” he said.
“To whom and to where do they want those properties returned?
“Our national chairman was Zapu and through the Unity Accord those properties are for the united Zanu PF.”
Some of the properties were bought after former Zipra fighters contributed money from their demobilisation payouts.
Nkomo’s vision was that the former fighters and their families would benefit from the investments when they were no longer able to work for themselves.
Scores have died paupers after the investments were seized during the Gukurahundi genocide in Matabeleland and the Midlands. Zapu dismissed Mugabe’s pleas as insincere, but Mutasa yesterday claimed the appeal was not directed at Dabengwa and his party.
He said Mugabe was speaking to ex-combatants because as far as they are concerned, Zanu PF and Zapu are still in the Unity Accord. He said the president would not call back people who were already in the party. The Unity Accord was signed in 1987 and Zapu insists it was not a fair agreement because it was hammered when Nkomo was under pressure to end the killing of his supporters.
“The president is very sincere in his remarks,” Mutasa said.
COMMENTS
ZAPU and MDC T must unity and fight against this common enermy which ZANU PF . Mutasa still runs mad , his time is about to be over , soon he will run and hide someway in China .
No, the people must rise and unite against tyranny. The balance of power must be in the hands of the people, not some party elite… no matter the party. The government must be for the good of the people, not the party… no matter which party rules. Elections must become fair and open and legal… no matter what party holds power. Let the people rule the nation. Let those who sit in power fear the people… then you will have freedom and democracy.
Fallenz well done. Thats all we want!
To those who want democracy- we have a party in power and a government derived from that party. To those who want jambanja we also have a party borne out of the printing press of a violent liberation war- take your pick. To those who want peace and prosperity let us work together to improve our country and our people. That is the multiple choice facing us. But remember that the violent route was tried in the early ’80s and its ruinous results are still with us!
It is not about properties, it is about peoples lives, honesty and integrity. Get our country away from the murdering gangsters of zpf and into the hands of responsible people and you will get your land back.Zapu, do not fall into the trap of being sucked into that pit of evil.
about time that the man in the street in Zimbabwe stood up and was counted. They sound like a bunch of yellow jackets.
Typical ZPF. How to lose friends and make enemies. No one needs to destroy ZPF for they are doing a good job themselves. That is how the great Roman Empire went down: it rotted within! God is not mocked!
Mutasa will not run to any China, he is dying and he must die early if he wants to go to heroes acres. Otherwise he is in his own personal trouble…..other thing that I ll personally do is to go and settle on the idle farm he took from John and Chibaya lying idle along road from Rusape to Inyati Mine. Its not a question of having lying properties but make them useful to benefit the economy.
That’s the Mutasa we know.