ZAPU has called on President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF government to return its records which were allegedly confiscated at the height of Gukurahundi era in the 1980s.
BY SILAS NKALA
Speaking during the launch of former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara’s book at the Small City Hall on Thursday, Zapu deputy spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa said the party wanted the records to document its full liberation history.
Mugabe’s government seized Zapu and Zipra properties which included farms, buildings and the records in the name of fighting dissidents who were perceived to be Zipra renegades.
Maphosa said Mutambara was lucky to be able to freely research and readily get all the records and historical information he needed to compile his book entitled In Search of the Elusive Zimbabwean Dream: An Autobiography of Thought Leadership.
He said it was not the case with Zapu that had its records confiscated by government.
“We are both thrilled and saddened by this event as Zapu cadres since the party is all but incapacitated in writing our own history as a liberation movement that fought for and brought independence to Zimbabwe,” Maphosa said.
“We cannot fully express ourselves historically because all our records were confiscated by one-party State proponent Mugabe and his Zanu PF when they embarked on the infamous 20 000 moments of madness in the 1980s.”
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He said the party records dated back to 1961.
“We have good writers among us who need to narrate how our great warrior, Nikita Mangena, died in Zambia, how our great Commander Lookout Masuku died at the hands of Zanu PF’s secret agents-infested prison service and also how our great leader Jini Ntuta died at the hands of the Fifth Brigade,” Maphosa said.
He said Zapu disputed the popular claim by Zanla that their members were responsible for blowing up fuel tanks in Harare in the late 1970s.
He said the attack was a responsibility of Zipra as Zanla had no capacity to blow the fuel reserves, an incident that sent the Rhodesian regime to the negotiating table.
