ZAPU Europe Holds a Successful

Reminiscent of the yesteryears, the exuberance in the ZAPU Europe meeting, held in London, United Kingdom in Pimlico today, was amazing and infectious. Speaker after speaker emphasised the need for paving a way-forward and the strategies to navigate the way ahead, with particular emphasis to the 2018 national plebiscite.

Mr Manyathela the London District Chairperson who presided over the meeting as the MC for the day welcomed  the people  and called upon Mr Mpho Ncube to explain the fire evacuation procedures and the other premise rules. Thereafter Mr Manyathela introduced Mr Themba Mthethwa whose speech clearly became the highlight of the day. Mr Mthethwa's speech focused on the exigencies of mobilisation and the need to start planning for the 2018 elections. (A more detailed account of Mr Mthethwa's speech to follow in the next instalment)

The next speaker was Mr Graham Williamson of Nations Without States organisation, whose purpose is to fight for people of the world's self-determination. Mr Graham speech's speech focused on self-determination with particular emphasis on devolution of power as espoused by ZAPU. He narrated how devolution of power can be a model of empowering people to decide their destinies. He gave the Scottish example of how devolution has worked in their favour.

"We support all forms of self-determination, be it independence, devolution or whatever, however, in the current set up of the political world order, where peaceful means of attaining power is the name of the game, devolution of power stands better prospects of attaining self-determination" Mr Graham explained.

The Secretary General of ZAPU, Dr Ralph Mguni gave a feedback on his assessment of the political landscape in Zimbabwe and his vision for a ZAPU government, which he said that it will be a fully devolved government with local people making their local decisions without the unnecessary interference from the centre. "In my tenure as the Europe Provincial Chair, I would say that my greatest success was to enable people to start believing in themselves and to accept that devolution comes with a responsibility and willingness to grab chances and use them in empowering self and others" Dr Mguni said.

Explaining the financial management systems of ZAPU which aid accountability and transparency, Dr Mguni stated that he rejected the centralised financial management system as it does not complement ZAPU's flagship policy of devolution of power. He said that he helped institute the financial management system which respects people and acknowledges that local structures have to be financially viable.

The meeting ended with a question and answer session, but in reality the session became an ideas sharing session. Instead of people absolving off responsibility people were taking ownership of the party and proposing ground-breaking ideas to move ZAPU forward.

When the meeting was about to end people broke into a song, ululated, blown vuvuzelas and danced in joyful manner.

The newly appointed ZAPU Regional Treasurer Mr Siqhelile Ndlovu, who doubles as the PEC Treasurer made an announcement about ZAPU Project initiatives which he requested and encouraged people to be part of the initiatives.

"ZAPU is back, this was a fantastic meeting" concluded Mr Maphosa, the PEC Chairman.