Mugabe has score to settle with Mat'land - Zapu

On 9 May ZAPU painted the historic Stanley Hall of Makokoba in their campaign golden yellow. In scenes reminiscent of the volatile and vibrant 80s the venue erupted into song as the Party's candidates were presented to the members. The Party is contesting the 5 National House of Assembly in Bulawayo that fell vacant after MDC t fired the sitting MPs for joining the Renewal Team of Biti. In an astounding turn of events MDC-T decided to boycott the resultant by-elections citing an uneven playing field. ZAPU while challenging the non implementation of Electoral Act in the Constitutional Court decided to challenge the virtual walkover that MDCt had handed to ZANU. The Party then decided to listen to the pleas of the people of Bulawayo and offer an alternative to ZANU candidates.

Mbayiwa the Southern Regional Co-odinator emphasized the point that the current regime had failed the people of Bulawayo and had turned the city's factories into fly by night churches. Only a party such as ZAPU can turn around the fortunes of the city. As such members should go out and campaign for the Party's candidates to make sure that they are elected into Parliament. Next to step up to the podium was Echem Nkala the Secretary for Security. He reminded the house of the historical significance of the venue in the struggle for freedom of the people of Bulawayo. He quoted the late first President JMN Nkomo who told the party to be prudent in forming alliances with other political formations, reminding the party to stick to the Cold Comfort Farm resolution that the party should not lose its identity or its ideological programme.

Nkala also took a swipe at Mugabe for his tribal diatribe against the Kalanga people of the western region of the country. He rubbished the notion that it was a slip of the tongue or even that he was misquoted.

Nkala said Mugabe had a festering score to settle with the people of the region and had finally been unable to contain his hatred.

PEC Chairperson Sibanda then presented the candidates to the National Executive Committee which was present at the event. He narrated a brief history of each candidate and highlighted their relevance to the history, present and the future of the party.

Sibanda says while it is painful that the city's industry had collapsed he was on the other hand glad because it gave ZAPU an opportunity to revive the sector and display to all and sundry the effectiveness of its policies.

The President then stood up to launch the campaign. The President recalled how as a youth they would come and listen in at the windows as the late founding nationalists Joshua Nkomo and J Z Moyo conscientised the black population on the struggle.

He also reminded the gathering that after the decision to revive the party had been taken, it was at Stanley Hall that the party had its first meeting where a committee was chosen to spearhead the pullout from the unity agreement and revive the party. He recounted how the dismissed renewal members had approached the party seeking support to retain the seats after they had been expelled from the parliament. To the dismay of the party the renewal mps later changed their minds and decided to boycott the by-elections. This forced the ZAPU NEC to convene an emergency meeting since the party could not let ZANU go unchallenged in the elections. Bulawayo PEC also supported the decision by affirming their willingness to participate in the elections. The province then chose 5 candidates to stand in the elections.

The President reported on the ongoing court case against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission for not compiling and availing an electronic voters' roll to the political parties as called for by the Electoral Act. For the by-elections ZEC has once again relied on the manual and highly defective voters' roll prepared by the Registrar General. The Registrar General's voters roll has multiple entries of registered voters of the same name, address and age residing at the same address. This allows for vote rigging by the ruling party. The President also called on the Candidates to train their election agents to be vigilant as the chances of another NIKUV are high. The purpose of the court challenge is to force ZEC to take up its constitutional role of ensuring that the commission is staffed by professional and non partisan personnel.

The President called on the youth to stand up and fight for their rights and fix the situation. He said he is always amazed by the Zimbabwean youths who approach him in the restaurants of Johannesburg asking when he would change things at home. He called upon the youth to come back home and take up the baton stick from the older generation of the liberation struggle veterans. Change will and can only come through the youth.