Dabengwa's death revibrates Zapu

Thousands of people thronged the White City Stadium on Friday the 31st of May 2019 and Manxeleni on the 1st of June 2019. It occurred there, and indeed, Zapu was reborn, rediscovered and emotionally and spiritually revived. It was total pain and grief to accept the reality that indeed Dumiso Dabengwa was no more but a strong call from his voice to refuse to succumb to all the pressure resonated clearly. And the people heard it and responded.

As humbly stated by the Acting President, comrade Isaac Mabuka on Friday at White City  Stadium, Dumiso Dabengwa foresaw and rejected an orchestrated attempt to wipe out from Zimbabwean history everything about Zapu. The turnout proved to be a deep rooted respect, appreciation and a resounding endorsement of a life sacrificially lived for the benefit of other people  and no doubt, antagonistic to a "good riddance send-off gesture" by a brutally repressive system of ZAnuPF. The people demonstrated their deep rooted sense of loss of a genuine revolutionary stalwart.

The party's Secretary General,  cde Strike Mnkandla clearly stated that the Zapu leadership, its membership and indeed all Zimbabweans have a mammoth task to make sure that the reforms that were agreed upon during the Government of National Unity are implemented. Zapu stands resolutely convinced that before any truly free and fair general elections are held, those reforms agreed upon must be carried out. Comrade Mnkandla farther reminded the crowd that Gukurahundi genocide remained a painful issue to Dumiso Dabengwa's life.  It cannot be perpetually dismissed or just be talked-off. Human life is sacred. It cannot be brutally terminated willy-nilly to the convenience or pleasure of the armed.

Dabengwa fought, survived and won many military battles. He commanded many soldiers. He planned and strategized to liberate not only Zimbabwe from the racist minority regimes of Ian Smith and apartheid South Africa, but the greatest battle that the " Black Russian" fought was his withdrawal from Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF under very difficult conditions. To us in Zapu, it was one of the most difficult and most demanding battles that the gallant son of the soil ever fought. Not only was this a persistent threat to his physical being but it was a continuous psychological torture that he had to bear with during the last years of his life. This battle faced and still faces dismissal coupled with multitudes of deliberate distortions. It calls for tact, vision, patience and even more sacrifice.

The people who attended these two gatherings had their political consciousness reignited by the embarrassing denial of accepting genuinely who the late Dumiso Dabengwa was by the ZanuPF government. Throughout the entire bereavement period ZanuPF, the State controlled media and all government departments never linked Dumiso Dabengwa's name to Zapu, his political party. Such blatant naïveté is a shameless display of ruthless repression. It is typical of all genocidists. Hitler's chief propagandist Josef Goebbels must be their source of inspiration but one is tempted to believe that he did have some sense of shame if he is compared with the ZanuPF propaganda machinery. They expected the crowd to listen to them while they totally ignored the reality on the ground. It was not surprising that their main speaker was booed.

The people of Zimbabwe will forever cherish and be thankful to the Umkhonto weSizwe Veterans for their sincerity and accurate historical facts about Dumiso Dabengwa and Zapu. Minister Ayanda Dlodlo's cries of "VIVA UMKHONTO WESIZWE VIVA: VIVA ZIPRA VIVA: VIVA DUMISO DUMISO VIVA and VIVA ZAPU VIVA:". It was not a cry against anyone but a spiritual and indeed a revolutionary response to Dumiso Dabengwa's resonating call for democracy, freedom and respect of human rights. Zapu rededicates itself to these values as we shall forever remember Dumiso Dabengwa.

Mkhululi Zulu: Zapu Presidential Spokesperson.