ZAPU reclaiming Dr Joshua Nkomo's legacy in Bradford

A buoyant and increasingly confident & visible ZAPU held a flamboyant and a spectacularly successful Dr Joshua Nkomo commemorative event in Bradford this weekend on 2nd August 2014. The memorial service for the late ZAPU leader was organised by an able team which comprised of Nokutula Ncube- Arts and Culture; Adi Moyo- Mobilisation and the ever charismatic Ms Susan Ndlovu- ZAWU leader.  "We remember him as the greatest Zimbabwean ever lived, the most versatile, incredibly humble and innovative leader" explained Susan Ndlovu describing Dr Joshua Nkomo's  leadership credentials.

This year's event, as expected, was more successful than the last year's event, the attendance was great, the spirit and camaraderie was exuberant and permeated the ambience to infectiously uplift and ecstatically anchor their feet on the dance floor in celebrating the life of Dr Joshua Nkomo.

In attendance were people who had travelled all the way from East Sussex, London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Manchester and many other near and far places. Invited guests included other Zimbabwean political parties, with the exception of ZANU PF, which was left out deliberately; this was a clear indication to ZANU that ZAPU was not happy about the treatment that Dr Joshua Nkomo received from ZANU PF. Mr Khoza the invited MDC guest,  aptly summed it up when he quoted Joshua Nkomo from his book ‘Story of My Life', where he said that Dr Nkomo had written that the challenges he faced during the liberation struggle did not prepare him for the treatment he was receiving from the hands of a black government of Robert Mugabe.

Second, year running, Mr Titshabona Malaba delivered a blistering and highly informative speech, with his calm, velvet and commanding voice he just drew people and kept them focused to each and every word which proceeded from his mouth. Mr Malaba explaining the miraculous event surrounding the birth of Dr Joshua stated "The life of Dr Nkomo became in reality that perpetual cry for freedom and justice in the land, he never kept silent in the face of wrong all his life, and we meet today to cry".

Mr Mlamlankunzi Nkomo a member of ZAPU's National People's Council, read speeches from Mr Michael Sibangilizwe Nkomo, the son of the late Dr Joshua Nkomo and he also read a speech from the current President of ZAPU Dr Dumiso Dabengwa. In his address Dr Dumiso Dabengwa decried the conditions the people of Zimbabwe are finding themselves in, in contradistinction to what Dr Joshua Nkomo stood and fought for. Dr Dabengwa clearly showed that he understood the needs of the diaspora community, which is their desire to return home and live with their families in an economically stable country.  "Your hopes of ever coming back home to settle and enjoy a prosperous life; hopes that the majority of our people sacrificed for over a long agonising struggle have been and continue to be dashed; but certainly not for good, Zimbabweans have repeatedly displayed their resilience and fighting spirit" Dr Dabengwa stated in his statement.

Mr Karimanzira read Dr Ralph Mguni's speech, Dr Mguni is ZAPU's general secretary, and he is one of the most efficient administrators and probably the most significant emerging visionary leader that the country has ever produced.

Song, dance and poetry was the order of the day a sign of a happy people. When the attendees were asked to reflect on Nkomo's legacy, the majority individually raised similar themes, namely that he was a unifier a man who abhorred tribalism which is being brazenly perpetrated and pushed by ZANU PF; they said Nkomo epitomised equality which was the basis of his ideals of an equitable redistribution of land not the madness of ZANU PF's stealing of land and redistributing it amongst its friends. ZAPU will redress this anomalous situation through the binoculars and prisms of Nkomo's fairness and equality.

ZAPU of late is increasingly flexing its muscles; this encouraging development has been sufficiently reciprocated by the corresponding number of people who are steadily joining the party.

In the past ZAPU has been dogged by the perception that it was not vigorously challenging Robert Mugabe and his party. ZAPU has come of age and is starting to institute radical propositions; its members have been crying and asking that it initiates parallel structures of recognising its heroes and heroines who were never conferred hero status by the government of Zimbabwe. ZAPU is set to make radical policy pronouncements on this issue.