Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0423/04235.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 41KB | 643 lines

$Unique_ID{COW04235}
$Pretitle{371}
$Title{Zimbabwe
Chapter 4C.   Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Jean R. Tartter}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{government
party
african
zanu-pf
white
mugabe
pf-zapu
minister
zimbabwe
members}
$Date{1982}
$Log{Animals of Zimbabwe*0423501.scf
Figure 18.*0423502.scf
}
Country:     Zimbabwe
Book:        Zimbabwe, A Country Study
Author:      Jean R. Tartter
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 4C.   Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front

[See Animals of Zimbabwe: Courtesy Embassy of Zimbabwe, Washington DC.]

     At independence ZANU-PF was by no means a cohesive party. Its leaders had
been hastily reassembled, some of them guerrillas who had conducted years of
bitter bush warfare. Many had just been released from political detention;
others had been in exile promoting the nationalist cause in Africa and other
world capitals. They were not motivated by a single ideology, their attitudes
ranging from strident Marxism to old-style African nationalism. ZANU-PF's
policymaking body, the central committee, was crisscrossed by conflicting
interests, although these could be traced more to tribal and personality
clashes than to ideological differences.

[See Figure 18.: Results of Common Voter Roll Election to House of Assembly,
1980 Source: Based on information from Colin Legum (ed.), Africa Contemporary
Record, New York, 1981, pp. 977-78.]

     Within the predominant Shona group of the ZANU-PF leadership, the leading
political figures were loosely identified with either of two factions: the
Karanga and the Zezuru-Manyika. A leading figure in the Karanga faction was
said to be the deputy prime minister. Simon Muzenda; the leader of the other
faction was Edgar Tekere, the party's secretary general and minister of
manpower, planning, and development. The Muzenda group was said to be more
conservative and cautious and more inclined to cooperation or merger with
PF-ZAPU. The Zezuru-Manyika group was identified with the bellicose radicalism
of Tekere and his personal animosity toward Nkomo and PF-ZAPU. Tekere's forced
retirement from the government and later from his high party post after his
acquittal on charges of murdering a white farmer left others of like
temperament in the cabinet. They were reputed to include Ernest Kadungura
(minister, of youth, sport, and recreation) and Herbert Ushewokunze (minister
of home affairs). Ushewokunze, an impetuous individual, had been given his
important portfolio with responsibility for the police in spite of earlier
dismissal as minister of health after accusing white hospital personnel of
discriminating against African patients and the Public Service Commission of
favoring whites.

     Other prominent cabinet figures selected by Mugabe were not closely
identified with either of these factions. They included Eddison Zvobgo,
minister of legal and parliamentary affairs, who had been charged with
recommending revisions in the governmental structure and had been a leading
campaigner for a one-party state. Nkala, outspoken on many issues, had a
political style close to the Zezuru group in spite of his Ndebele background.
Reassigned from finance to the lesser portfolio of national supplies, he was
still regarded as politically influential. Several cabinet ministers were
clearly selected for their professional and technical qualifications rather
than their party standing. Bernard Chidzero, an official of a United Nations
(UN) agency, returned to Zimbabwe to accept the portfolio of economic planning
and development; this was later combined with finance to give him preeminence
in economic matters.

     Mugabe, a Zezuru, was regarded as being among those of leftist
convictions in the ZANU-PF spectrum. However, he remained above the
factionalism, balancing the two tendencies while solidifying his own
authority. His tolerance, which was greater than that of some of the more
impulsive and radical cabinet members, was evident in his willingness to
appoint new PF-ZAPU members to the cabinet even after accusing the party
leadership of plotting insurrection.

     The party's central committee was subject to election by a national
congress of ZANU-PF. The committee had been constituted in 1977, although the
only party congress that had been held was in 1964. The committee originally
consisted of thirty-three members, but seven denounced as a left-wing clique
had been removed and detained in Mozambique. The composition of the remaining
twenty-six posts had changed little. Some of the important positions like
those of secretary general and secretary for defense had not been filled after
they became vacant pending elections at a party congress planned for 1983. In
1982 most of the central committee members concurrently held ministerial or
military positions.

     Most members of the central committee had party titles of secretary or
deputy secretary and responsibilities roughly corresponding to the various
government departments. The president, secretary general, and secretaries
comprised a senior group of about ten members known as the national executive.
There was little evidence, however, that the national executive acted as an
inner core of leaders, such as those in the political bureaus of
Marxist-oriented parties elsewhere. Mugabe has indicated that the central
committee leadership might be simplified in conjunction with the planned
national congress, leaving as its officers only the president, secretary
general, national political commissar, organizing secretary, treasurer,
publicity chief, and the secretaries for youth and for women.

     During the civil war ZANU-PF was effectively organized at the grass roots
in the eastern provinces where its guerrilla operations were centered. A
network of councils and committees provided supplies to the guerrillas and
looked after the needs of the local population in areas where the Salisbury
government no longer had administrative control. When Mugabe came to power,
many local party functionaries assumed posts in government at the district
level. The party apparatus thus has been closely linked with administration in
Shona rural areas, and party cadres have been effective in organizing
community activity or mobilizing support at election time.

     In an effort to reinvigorate the party machinery, the central committee
was reported in March 1982 to have called for a new structure whose basic
unit, the cell, would consist of 100 people headed by an executive committee
comprising a chairman, secretary-treasurer, commissar, and security officer,
and two additional members. There would be men's, women's, and youth wings. At
the next level a branch would be made up of 500 people and a leadership
committee of fourteen individuals. District membership would total 5,000, and
province organizations would be formed from the district groups.

     Whether or not such an orderly plan could be successfully introduced,
Mugabe has advocated a policy of mass membership rather than an elite party
where membership must be earned over a lengthy period. Thus former members of
other parties, including whites, have been welcomed. The prime minister has
declared that white candidates would be put forward in the elections scheduled
for 1985. It was conceded that many voters were joining ZANU-PF out of
self-interest, but in Mugabe's judgment it was better to have them under the
party's control where some kind of transformation might take place. Membership
dues were minimal. The party was seeking to pay for its postindependence debts
and the reconstruction of party headquarters after it had been bombed by
embarking on various business ventures, including farms, real estate holdings,
and manufacturing.

     In 1982 debate over policy direction of ZANU-PF was confined within the
central committee; its conclusions were then expected to be reflected in
day-to-day operating decisions of the cabinet. This could lead to difficulties
when th