Opinion / Columnist
ZAPU Europe Province to elect its new PEC for a new term
11 Jan 2016 at 12:11hrs | Views
On behalf of the PEC, it is an honour and privilege for me to announce that the province will be holding an elective AGM on the 30th April 2016 to elect a new PEC to lead for another 4 years. The venue and other details will be communicated to the membership in due course, while the general information regarding the whole electoral exercise will continue to flow as the process unfolds.
This is a decision made recently by the PEC as we approach the end of our term (24.03.2016). All necessary protocols have been undertaken. The presidency has been informed and they have responded by wishing us well in 2016 and a successful Provincial Election.
A letter has been written and sent by the PEC to the Provincial Council of Elders inviting them to kick-start the process of conducting the election as per their constitutional mandate. The outgoing PEC is determined and will do all it can to facilitate a free, fair, transparent and democratic process that will guarantee credibility. I therefore wish to invite all concerned and the membership in general to join hands and work together to achieve this noble goal of our democracy in the party.
The Council of Elders will then task its sub-committee (Elections Committee) to do the job under its guidance. Such committee is usually composed of members of the CoE and some individuals drawn from other structures according to their expertise. We have made this early announcement
in order to allow ample time for proper organisation. The process will also include thorough involvement of party structures and the membership who will meet to nominate candidates for various PEC positions. The candidates will then draw up manifestos and begin their campaigns for votes while preparations for other electoral logistics are being made.
We are doing this with all determination and commitment and with full knowledge and conviction that ours is the organisation which the answers to our people's problems as we did during the liberation struggle. We have remained convinced that ZAPU remains the vehicle to take the country and the nation to the rightful destination. There are some outside our party who ask why have we continued to maintain our membership of ZAPU and remained diligent to it. They allege that it is a tribal party representing a certain section of the population. This is a clear indication that our country has allowed its enemies to instil politics of division and hate among its citizens. ZAPU has never been tribal and shall never be.
I was astounded when I met a young fellow Zimbabwean in his mid-thirties in East London who was happy to inform me to which party he belonged. He was very quick to suggest that we discuss the politics of our country especially tribalism. I never suspected that in his mind I belonged to a tribal party and he was not aware that I hated tribalism mainly as a result of being a product of my organisation.
The young man went on to explain why he thought ZAPU is a tribal Party, he said that members come from a certain region and that we don't understand what he called the main element of democracy which is majority rule, and that the majority tribe must rule and that the head of state must always come from the majority tribe. I tried to explain to him that majority rule in democracy does not mean majority tribe. I gave him an example of Gordon Brown who was Prime Minister of UK but was Scottish.
To my concern, this was not the first time I heard people interpret democracy in terms of tribal majority, one wonders where they got that nonsense from.
I remembered another instance in 1981when we travelled to Masvingo and spent time at the Chevron Hotel with the late Professor Enos Malandu who had a short chat with a very senior govt minister who expressed the same understanding of majority rule as the young man I met in East London. Prof. Malandu was so dismayed to an extent of using the word 'empty' in reference to the minister's lack of understanding of mature politics.
I will never forget Mr Svosve who chaired ZAPU Norton district in the early 80s when he equated our national tribes to family siblings saying that when the parents are gone the eldest brother has the biggest responsibility to uplift and secure his siblings especially the youngest and will lay his life for them. This is what happens in building a nation.
It has always been clear to me why the late Joshua Nkomo always addressed the matter so seriously as part of his nation building attempts, he would always say that the MAJORITY RULE MEANS MAJORITY VOTES and NOT any tribes. Tribes are only groups of equal Zimbabweans, they are flowers that make Zimbabwe beautiful. Some of us feel so strongly that the spirit of Joshua Nkomo should be preserved jealously for the good of our country and future generations. It is in us and will always be preserved in its original and genuine form by his organisation ZAPU. We now have many who are using his name in vain. You will remember that only last week, the military and its hardware equipment was mobilised and put on standby to support the police in crashing a peaceful demonstration by the civil servants for merely asking for their dues, Joshua Nkomo could never have ordered the armed forces against defenceless citizens.
The deliberate misinterpretation of the ‘majority rule' concept builds serious divisions among population groups, creates nepotism and brings about domination of other groups by the other. It makes others feel rejected in their motherland. I know it is not easy to undo such indoctrination accumulated over 35 years but it remains a duty of every Zimbabwean to work towards undoing it.
In conclusion I wish to express my concern in the ‘revolutionary situation' created by the ruling elite in the country that is progressively turning citizens into revolutionaries in order to massacre them one more time. Let me explain what I mean about a revolutionary situation; it is a situation created by the government knowing that it is no longer popular among the population and that the people can no longer remove it through a democratic vote even if they wanted to. Keeping the population subjected to abject poverty and pain without employment or any hope for a living. It is a situation whereby the government has lost ideas and maintains the status quo only by the use of armed forces to protect itself against citizens, it is a situation where the citizens also have suffered and are in such pain that living and death are one and they can no longer pass it onto their children let alone stomach it, they have reached their tolerance and resilient levels.
These are the reasons we will not forsake the golden ideals of genuine freedom that Zimbabweans set themselves to achieve on 12th September, 1957 when they formed the then SRANC.
2016 is the year that ZAPU moves to the next level and I invite all Zimbabweans in the UK to start the year with us, call our structures for membership and join us for the AGM. Freedom is for all Zimbabweans and should not be abused.
Thank You.
Christopher Maphosa- ZAPU Europe Chairperson.
This is a decision made recently by the PEC as we approach the end of our term (24.03.2016). All necessary protocols have been undertaken. The presidency has been informed and they have responded by wishing us well in 2016 and a successful Provincial Election.
A letter has been written and sent by the PEC to the Provincial Council of Elders inviting them to kick-start the process of conducting the election as per their constitutional mandate. The outgoing PEC is determined and will do all it can to facilitate a free, fair, transparent and democratic process that will guarantee credibility. I therefore wish to invite all concerned and the membership in general to join hands and work together to achieve this noble goal of our democracy in the party.
The Council of Elders will then task its sub-committee (Elections Committee) to do the job under its guidance. Such committee is usually composed of members of the CoE and some individuals drawn from other structures according to their expertise. We have made this early announcement
in order to allow ample time for proper organisation. The process will also include thorough involvement of party structures and the membership who will meet to nominate candidates for various PEC positions. The candidates will then draw up manifestos and begin their campaigns for votes while preparations for other electoral logistics are being made.
We are doing this with all determination and commitment and with full knowledge and conviction that ours is the organisation which the answers to our people's problems as we did during the liberation struggle. We have remained convinced that ZAPU remains the vehicle to take the country and the nation to the rightful destination. There are some outside our party who ask why have we continued to maintain our membership of ZAPU and remained diligent to it. They allege that it is a tribal party representing a certain section of the population. This is a clear indication that our country has allowed its enemies to instil politics of division and hate among its citizens. ZAPU has never been tribal and shall never be.
I was astounded when I met a young fellow Zimbabwean in his mid-thirties in East London who was happy to inform me to which party he belonged. He was very quick to suggest that we discuss the politics of our country especially tribalism. I never suspected that in his mind I belonged to a tribal party and he was not aware that I hated tribalism mainly as a result of being a product of my organisation.
The young man went on to explain why he thought ZAPU is a tribal Party, he said that members come from a certain region and that we don't understand what he called the main element of democracy which is majority rule, and that the majority tribe must rule and that the head of state must always come from the majority tribe. I tried to explain to him that majority rule in democracy does not mean majority tribe. I gave him an example of Gordon Brown who was Prime Minister of UK but was Scottish.
To my concern, this was not the first time I heard people interpret democracy in terms of tribal majority, one wonders where they got that nonsense from.
I remembered another instance in 1981when we travelled to Masvingo and spent time at the Chevron Hotel with the late Professor Enos Malandu who had a short chat with a very senior govt minister who expressed the same understanding of majority rule as the young man I met in East London. Prof. Malandu was so dismayed to an extent of using the word 'empty' in reference to the minister's lack of understanding of mature politics.
I will never forget Mr Svosve who chaired ZAPU Norton district in the early 80s when he equated our national tribes to family siblings saying that when the parents are gone the eldest brother has the biggest responsibility to uplift and secure his siblings especially the youngest and will lay his life for them. This is what happens in building a nation.
It has always been clear to me why the late Joshua Nkomo always addressed the matter so seriously as part of his nation building attempts, he would always say that the MAJORITY RULE MEANS MAJORITY VOTES and NOT any tribes. Tribes are only groups of equal Zimbabweans, they are flowers that make Zimbabwe beautiful. Some of us feel so strongly that the spirit of Joshua Nkomo should be preserved jealously for the good of our country and future generations. It is in us and will always be preserved in its original and genuine form by his organisation ZAPU. We now have many who are using his name in vain. You will remember that only last week, the military and its hardware equipment was mobilised and put on standby to support the police in crashing a peaceful demonstration by the civil servants for merely asking for their dues, Joshua Nkomo could never have ordered the armed forces against defenceless citizens.
The deliberate misinterpretation of the ‘majority rule' concept builds serious divisions among population groups, creates nepotism and brings about domination of other groups by the other. It makes others feel rejected in their motherland. I know it is not easy to undo such indoctrination accumulated over 35 years but it remains a duty of every Zimbabwean to work towards undoing it.
In conclusion I wish to express my concern in the ‘revolutionary situation' created by the ruling elite in the country that is progressively turning citizens into revolutionaries in order to massacre them one more time. Let me explain what I mean about a revolutionary situation; it is a situation created by the government knowing that it is no longer popular among the population and that the people can no longer remove it through a democratic vote even if they wanted to. Keeping the population subjected to abject poverty and pain without employment or any hope for a living. It is a situation whereby the government has lost ideas and maintains the status quo only by the use of armed forces to protect itself against citizens, it is a situation where the citizens also have suffered and are in such pain that living and death are one and they can no longer pass it onto their children let alone stomach it, they have reached their tolerance and resilient levels.
These are the reasons we will not forsake the golden ideals of genuine freedom that Zimbabweans set themselves to achieve on 12th September, 1957 when they formed the then SRANC.
2016 is the year that ZAPU moves to the next level and I invite all Zimbabweans in the UK to start the year with us, call our structures for membership and join us for the AGM. Freedom is for all Zimbabweans and should not be abused.
Thank You.
Christopher Maphosa- ZAPU Europe Chairperson.
Source - ZAPU Europe Chairperson.
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