Zimbabwe African People's Union


The Zimbabwe African People's Union is a Zimbabwean socialist political party. It is a militant organization and political party that campaigned for majority rule in Rhodesia, from its founding in 1961 until 1980. In 1987, it merged with the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. It was relaunched in 2008.
The party was formed on 17 December 1961, 10 days after the Rhodesian government banned the National Democratic Party. It was founded by Joshua Nkomo as president, Tichafa Samuel Parirenyatwa as vice-president, Ndabaningi Sithole as chairman, Jason Moyo, Robert Mugabe as information and publicity secretary Leopold Takawira as external secretary. At the request of Joseph Msika, ZAPU was banned in 1962 by the Rhodesian white minority government, and later engaged in a guerrilla war against it. The armed wing of ZAPU, known as Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army, was commanded by General Lookout Masuku.
ZAPU aligned with the Soviet Union, whose ideology was to mobilize urban workers, whereas ZANU had a pro-People's Republic of China orientation which was to mobilize the rural peasantry.

Unification into ZANU-PF

In 1980, ZAPU contested elections in Zimbabwe as the Patriotic Front, but lost to its rival ZANU. They merged into ZANU–PF in 1987 following the Gukurahundi massacres.

Unity Accord

The Unity Accord signed at that meeting stated that:
Under the influence of Benny Ncube and Dumiso Dabengwa in mid-October 2008, in the midst of ongoing negotiations with rival parties, a group of former PF ZAPU and Zipra members loudly pushed to dissolve the alliance with ZANU - PF. The members convened a meeting on 8 November, and it was decided that:
Ex-ZIPRA cadres officially withdrew their membership from the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, which was under the administration of ZANU PF. They revived ZIPRA, led by Benny Ncube as chairperson, Tapson Moyo as vice chairperson, Petros Sibanda as secretary, Job Ndlovu as deputy secretary, Belinda Ndebele as treasurer,\ and committee members are Stanley Ncube and Clement Malaba Ncube. The committee's mandate was to set up the association's structures in provinces and districts in preparation for the inaugural congress where the substantive executive was to be elected. The association will work closely with the mother party ZAPU.

National Consultative Convention

At the party conference, the ZAPU National Consultative Convention, held from the 13-14 December 2008, Dumiso Dabengwa, a former Home Affairs minister was elected interim chairperson with the mandate to convene a two-day congress starting 11 April 2009. The congress would formally endorse the pullout from ZANU and elect an executive for the party.

Party Congress of 2009

The party congress of 2009, which was supposed to elect new leadership, took place a month later than scheduled, on 16 May 2009. The congress formally endorsed the party's withdrawal from ZANU PF and withdrew support for its former members who had chosen to remain in ZANU. The congress was attended by delegates from the country's 10 provinces as well as representatives from Canada, South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland.

Party Congress of 2010

A full Congress was held in August 2010, at which a full policy was agreed and leadership elected with Dumiso Dabengwa as President and Emilia Mukaratirwa as Vice-President.