Zapu alive and kicking in Europe-UK province

For the first time since ZAPU's revival ; the ZAPU UK/Europe Chapter/province will rightfully assume its rightful position in the party as its strategic province; which is placed to mobilise human resources and massive financial resources for the party. The coming Provincial Elections have re-ignited the fire; the kind of enthusiasm and activity seen at branch and district levels throughout the United Kingdom is akin to the spirit of yesteryear only experienced during the liberation struggle. When talking to one of the aspiring candidates, he enthused as follows "I was born ZAPU, I lived through all its tribulations and trials; I rode the downward wave and came up through the high wave; I have to say that this spirit currently taking place in the Europe province is the most uplifting; people were beginning to lose heart, not knowing that new leadership was being distilled, and through the distillation process, ZAPU UK has now managed to unearth dynamic and visionary leadership"

For sure, his words were not in vain, 'yours truly' visited two districts this past weekend and what he saw there is testimony to the enthusiasm which is gripping all ZAPU membership in the UK, when I asked where all this joy and hope came from, I was told that the 24th March 2012 Provincial election is going to be a watershed election, which would mark a fresh and vibrant re-start for ZAPU in Europe. The Election will for the first time produce a credible leadership, untainted by political squabbles and unbound by the confusion which has been the only visible activity since its revival. When talking to different individuals one got sense that ZAPU has a massive potential as a party, its die-hard supporters seem eager and ready to push its cause until the end of time.
Speaking to one member about what President Robert Mugabe had said about Zimbabwe being too small for devolution of power and declaring that devolution will split the country, the member responded as follows "Mugabe is not a 'people' of Zimbabwe, if people of Zimbabwe want devolution, he can not stop it. Mugabe will be dragged kicking and screaming into the light, he is too used to undemocratic principles that he now genuinely believes that dictatorship is democracy. This time round devolution of power will be included in the constitution whether he wants it or not. Mugabe single-handedly brought tribalism and created divisions in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe is the most divided Unitary state today, due to Mugabe's evil ways," he continued; "..people of Zimbabwe should not let Mugabe decide their future, he has destroyed their past, destroyed their present and he should not be allowed to destroy their future; without devolution, Zimbabwe will not move forward, be it politically or economically"

Back to the revived interest in Zapu in Europe, I asked one of their members as to the importance or relevance of the ZAPU Europe/UK chatter; I was told that Europe is ZAPU's strategic region in terms of being in a position to raise massive resources for the party and geographically-conveniently placed to access and influence the international community against the dictatorship back home. I was told that Europe/UK can be used as a laboratory, in terms of training cadres for the economic emancipation and other useful skills, not forgetting training in leadership and state of the art management techniques which will propel ZAPU into a position where it can not be challenged by its opponents. ZAPU is known for creating an environment conducive for nurturing new talent.

I asked Thembani one of ZAPU's up and coming leaders, as to what will be the tasks for the incoming Provincial Executive committee. He said that the incoming executive should narrow its focus, it should focus on three tasks, that is, mobilisation of resources; mobilisation of human resources and endearing ZAPU policies within the international community. He reflected as follows "in the past, ZAPU Europe, has been bogged down by petty differences and divisions, when I refer to the mobilisation of human resources, I focus on three different levels, that is the people that ZAPU has lost since its revival; the retention of its current membership and the vigorously-unrelenting recruitment drive of new membership. Zapu should elect a Chair person who will be able to extend a hand of friendship to all Zimbabweans including individuals such as Nicky Ndebele, Magonya, and the other previous PEC leaders; unity is all what ZAPU needs from the new incoming executive committee and everybody is excited to see who that shall be"