Zapu, the opposition party, just marked 64 years since it started. Its president, Sibangilizwe Nkomo, called the entire history one long stretch of getting persecuted. He said the party, founded back in 1961, faced it from colonial rulers and then, way worse, from Robert Mugabe's Zanu government after independence.
Nkomo spelled out a brutal list. Leaders got jailed, killed, or forced to flee. Their stuff got taken. Regular supporters were targeted just for backing Zapu. He pointed directly at the early 80s, calling that time a genocide against people linked to his party, a clear reference to Gukurahundi. He claims the current government, under Emmerson Mnangagwa, is just running a cover-up by using traditional leaders for so-called healing.
He also complained that Zapu's old armed wing, their fighters from the liberation war, got written out of history by the guys who won. The whole thing started going south fast after the 1980 elections. Mugabe blamed Zapu's late leader, Joshua Nkomo, for plotting, sent in the army, and that led to a huge number of deaths in Matabeleland and the Midlands. Mugabe later called it a moment of madness, but for Zapu, it is the core of their story as a party that never stopped getting punched.
Nkomo spelled out a brutal list. Leaders got jailed, killed, or forced to flee. Their stuff got taken. Regular supporters were targeted just for backing Zapu. He pointed directly at the early 80s, calling that time a genocide against people linked to his party, a clear reference to Gukurahundi. He claims the current government, under Emmerson Mnangagwa, is just running a cover-up by using traditional leaders for so-called healing.
He also complained that Zapu's old armed wing, their fighters from the liberation war, got written out of history by the guys who won. The whole thing started going south fast after the 1980 elections. Mugabe blamed Zapu's late leader, Joshua Nkomo, for plotting, sent in the army, and that led to a huge number of deaths in Matabeleland and the Midlands. Mugabe later called it a moment of madness, but for Zapu, it is the core of their story as a party that never stopped getting punched.
