The Next ZAPU President: Thulani Nkala

 I am glad to announce to the ZAPU family and the world at large that I am going to be contesting for ZAPU President position on the 18 to 21st December 2015.

The National People's Council in its recent Conference resolved that ZAPU should convene its National Congress on the 18th to 21st December 2015. The National Congress is an opportunity for the Party to appraise its work and re-strategise its mission, this is done through policies, ideological programme and leadership renewal.

The Congress will usher in a new ZAPU President who will take over from Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and I hope it is going to be me.

My Profile:
My name is Thulani Nkala, I was born on the 27th November 1970 in Filabusi. I grew up in Filabusi, attended my Primary and part of my secondary education there. I then moved to Bulawayo to do my other part of my secondary education. I am a father of two lovely children. I am a Director and proprietor of Precision Social Care LTD Company. My University studies were in Business Studies and Social Work.

My political activism started when I was a teenager in Bulawayo, when I used to write anti-government documents and distributed them in beerhalls. In 1997 or there about I organised the first anti-Mugabe march in South Africa under the auspices of the Liberty Party of Zimbabwe which was led by CZ Moyo.

In South Africa I continued writing articles against the government of Mr Robert Mugabe, around this time; I was studying at the University of South Africa.

When I moved to the UK my radical strand of politics became very clear, I joined the MPC and later joined ZAPU.

A Synopsis of My Manifesto Pledges

1. Ideology- ZAPU needs proper ideological proposition, an ideology which will be all encompassing, an ideology which will not alienate anyone. Therefore based on this rationale ZAPU will not pursue any of the old political or economic ideologies such as capitalism, Socialism etc, however, it will take a pragmatic and eclectic view of ideologies. It is my belief that human life or experience is too complicated to be channelled or chiselled into one strand of ideology. All pure ideologies lead to fanaticism and extremism.  Under my leadership that will change. ZAPU cannot continue pretending that devolution of power is an ideology while everyone knows it is a governance system.

2. Displacements - Over the years Mr Robert Mugabe has played a tribal card, which led to enmasse displacements of people from Matebeleland from their homes and farms which were previously white owned. People from other regions of Zimbabwe moved into these farms and houses. This will be rectified under my leadership, I shall not wait for ZAPU to come into power, but as soon as I am elected as ZAPU President, I will start a program of driving out people who unfairly benefited under the unfair land redistribution.

3. ZAPU- the name ZAPU carries a lot of weight, both good and negative; a transparent process of rebranding will be initiated with a view of changing the name to a more modern and catchy name. This is going to be a purely democratic exercise, if the majority say it has to change it will change, but if the majority say NO then let it be.
Current ZAPU weaknesses:

Rebranding:
ZAPU is failing to rebrand itself, rebranding in all organisations is a must, however, since ZAPU's withdrawal from zanu it has failed to rebrand itself. The Party had all the goodwill of the people but our leaders failed to capitalise on it. The first radical steps under my leadership will be to split ZAPU into two; we shall have ZAPU Matebeleland and ZAPU Mashonaland, just like the Labour Party in the United Kingdom.  This will strengthen our Party's flagship policy of devolution of power. It is a lie that the people of Matebeleland's needs and aspirations are similar to those from other regions and vice versa.  

Leadership:
When Dr Dabengwa was elected as ZAPU President in 2010 his mandate was to successfully revive ZAPU; set structures nationally; and grow the Party. He has managed to successfully revive ZAPU, partially managed to set structures however dismally failed to grow the Party. My mandate as the new ZAPU President will be simple, that is to Grow the Party and ensure it is ready to govern. This will only be achieved by radical policy proposition. I will ensure that the majority of ZAPU's national leaders are Youthful, vibrant, talented, visionary, hardworking and selfless. This can only be achieved by moving away from running ZAPU as if ZAPU is an intelligence agency. My leadership will be open and accommodative; I will ensure that I make use of everybody's talents. The time for fearful and suspicious leadership will be shunned and looked upon with a scorn. Everybody will be a leader in ZAPU.

I am the first ZAPU leader to openly declare my interest to lead ZAPU; even Dr Dabengwa has not declared his interest. I hope that I am not going to be the only candidate, as I need stiff challenge to help me that sharpen and shape my policy offering.  

With me in charge ZAPU will never be the same again, it will never be anybody's punch bag. The yesteryear mistakes of our predecessors of being to understanding and being too nice when dealing with ZAnu shall be a thing of the past. I declare a political war against zanu pf.

In the near future I shall be releasing a more detailed ideological and policy document. In the meantime those who want to debate with me can contact me on thusinkala@gmail.com