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Open Letter from ZAPU President to the People of Zimbabwe
Dear Fellow Zimbabweans,
I trust you had a restful festive season with your families. As we record the first fortnight of 2025, allow me to extend my warm wishes for a year filled with hope, prosperity, and opportunities for all, not just for a select few. Sadly, as we reflect on the year behind us, we are reminded of the continued challenges that have plagued our nation. Last year mirrored the years before, marked by rampant plunder and corruption by those in power, with a culture of impunity that remains unchecked. Our public health infrastructure has crumbled, leaving hope only for a privileged few with enough wealth to access quality healthcare abroad.
Similarly, quality education, which should be a fundamental right for all, has become a privilege for an elite minority. The paradox of Zimbabwe as a nation endowed with abundant resources is painfully exposed by her failure to meet the basic needs of her people. The world watches in shock as our rich country extends a begging bowl for international aid while our elitist state actors bask in obscene opulence. This stark reality compels us to acknowledge that the current situation is unsustainable. It is time for us to rise as a united people to confront these injustices and build a better Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) has always stood as a beacon of hope and resilience. ZAPU led the masses in the fight against colonial oppression and white supremacy, a struggle rooted in the ideals of justice, equality, and freedom. Tragically, a splinter group hijacked power and betrayed the ethos of our struggle. The oppressive hand of the colonizer has merely been replaced by a black oppressor. The fact that we have witnessed sustained online debates, with people drawing comparisons between the Rhodesian and ZANU PF regimes, is an indictment on the pseudo-revolutionaries in power today. Their slogans espousing patriotism are nothing but political posturing and a smokescreen for their one-party state agenda.
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- Written by: Lulu Brenda Harris, CITE ZW News
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Ignored in life, exploited in death’: ZAPU blasts Zanu PF over Dube funeral
ZAPU National Chairperson, John Zolani Dlamini, has expressed outrage over Zanu PF’s alleged interference in the funeral of Seven Dube, a revered ZPRA cadre.
Dube, who became the face of the armed wing as “Isotsha eliphethe umntwana” (the soldier cradling the baby) passed away on December 22, 2024, at his home in Ezimnyama, Osabeni Ward 2, Mangwe District, Matabeleland South, following a long illness. His funeral, marred by political interference, has sparked controversy, with ZAPU accusing Zanu PF of exploiting the burial for political gain.
“We are from the funeral of our ZPRA icon, Comrade Seven Dube, who died sometime last week after a long illness,” Dlamini told CITE after Dube’s burial on December 31, 2024.
“Dube was very popular, symbolising our party during the 1980 elections. He was not working and lived as a peasant farmer in rural areas. When he was sick, he received no assistance from the government, surviving on a meager allowance.”
Dlamini said that Dube contributed to the purchase of ZPRA properties confiscated by Zanu PF, leaving veterans like him destitute.
“Even his medical needs were a struggle to meet,” he added.
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- Written by: Richard Gandari, ZAPU National Spokesperson
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22 December 2024
ZAPU marks today as a day of remembering the victims of the Ndebele Genocide (1983-1987) commonly known as Gukurahundi. The Ndebele Genocide is a microcosm of the Jewish Holocaust (1933-1945) and stands a stark reminder of the futility of having independence without freedom. The horrors of Gukurahundi have been documented in various ways but a platform for survivors to speak out openly remains a fleeting mirage. A chief-led Gukurahundi dialogue programme launched by President Mnangagwa in July this year remains on ice, clearly facing the stillbirth that similar window-dressing efforts have faced in the past. Apparently, there is no motivation for self-incrimination.
Political posturing and shedding of crocodile tears remains the government’s default strategy to buy time, hoping that the issue of Gukurahundi will eventually disappear as its victims die. No one outside the highest level of government has ever seen the report from the Dumbutshena Commision of Inquiry, established to investigate the Entumbane skirmishes between November 1980 and March 1981. Similarly, the Chihambakwe Commission of Inquiry established by President Mugabe in 1983 to investigate the massacres of civilians in Matabeleland by the Fifth Brigade issued a report that remains hidden from the public domain. In 2019, the Chairperson of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC), the late Retired High Court judge Selo Nare told the media that the Dumbutshena and Chihambakwe reports had been lost.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Someone somewhere knows of the whereabouts of the “lost” reports. Perpetrators of Gukurahundi by commission are also officially known. The Zimbabwe National Army holds complete records of the list of soldiers deployed as members of the Fifth Brigade under the command of one Colonel ‘Black Jesus’ Perrance Shiri. The perpetrators of Gukurahundi are known and their trail of destruction remains evident in the parts of Matabeleland and Midlands they ravaged. Some victims of Gukurahundi can point at their rapists and torturers now decorated civil servants, diplomats or army top brass. A longer list exists, of Gukurahundi perpetrators by omission – institutions and individuals who watched in silence as the Ndebele Genocide occurred during half a decade of rape, torture and wanton bloodletting.
