Mugabe arm-twisted Nkomo into the Unity Accord, as condition to stop Gukurahundi- Mabuka

As the nation gears up for the National Unity Day tomorrow, ZAPU acting president Isaac Mabuka says the opposition party only signed the Unity Accord with ZANU, only to stop the Gukurahundi killings.

Speaking during the party’s 59th anniversary held in Bulawayo recently, he said ZAPU was arm-twisted by Robert Mugabe into signing the Accord, adding that they agreed, so that Mugabe would stop the killings.

“Only one condition was given by Zanu PF’s Mugabe in order for Gukurahundi to stop – that Zapu signs the never negotiated unity accord document and agree to be swallowed by his party,” he said.

He added: “As a result, Zapu went in and the physical killings stopped, albeit with the scorched earth policies of the government continuing up to this very day.”

Mabuka said it is regrettable that ZANU-PF went on to violate human rights: “The Zapu component in the government also called in the government to respect, protect and promote human rights, but the calls fell on deaf ears.”

He added that because of that, the party got fed up and cut ties with ZANU PF.

“Eventually, Zapu got fed up and in 2009 severed the unity accord ties and pulled out from both Zanu PF as well as government. A resolution was taken at the White City Stadium and marked the first step of Zapu’s revival, followed by a special convention at McDonalds Hall in 2009 and later in 2010 at the ZITF Congress.”

Mabuka added that the Zapu structures, after these events, were revived and became independent, entity under liberation stalwart Dumiso Dabengwa totally different from Zanu PF.

He described the journey as tough, saying it was operating in the most hostile of environments on shoe-string budgets.

“However, we lost our sitting president (Dumiso Dabengwa) in 2019. We are preparing the upcoming 2021 (elective) congress. Zapu has proved to be the most resilient political party of all time After surviving the worst adversities and still be able to celebrate its 59th anniversary,” said Mabuka.