Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front

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Flag of the ZANU-PF

Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front ( ZANU-PF or Zanu-PF , also without a hyphen; German  for example: African National Union of Zimbabwe - Patriotic Front ) is a party in Zimbabwe . Together with its predecessor, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), it has dominated Zimbabwean politics since the country gained independence.

history

ZANU was founded in 1963 when what was then Southern Rhodesia was still under British colonial administration. It had split off from the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), which was led by pro-Soviet-minded Joshua Nkomo . The founder of ZANU was Ndabaningi Sithole , who was more oriented towards the People's Republic of China and thus set himself apart from Nkomo. Together with the lawyer Herbert Chitepo , he took a more forgiving path. In contrast to later developments, both the ZAPU and the ZANU were able to bind Shona and Ndebele to themselves and thus rely equally on the two largest ethnic groups in the country. Sithole represented the more developed east of the country, while Nkomo was more anchored in the poor south. ZANU and ZAPU saw themselves as political parties and together formed the Patriotic Front during the War of Independence. Its military wings, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), operated from the neighboring countries of Zambia (ZIPRA) and, after its independence, also from Mozambique (ZANLA).

After Chitepo's murder on March 18, 1975, Robert Mugabe , who was in Mozambique at the time , gained the leading position in the ZANU. However, he could not prevent the extensive division into ethnic groups. Many Ndebele followed Sithole in the more moderate party, which renounced the armed struggle, which was later called ZANU-Ndonga, the Shona followed Mugabe in the more militant ZANU.

In 1979 Sithole participated in the interim government of whites and blacks under Bishop Abel Muzorewa in what was then Zimbabwe-Rhodesia . He participated with Muzorewa in the negotiations on the Lancaster House Agreement in London on a constitution and general elections in Zimbabwe. ZANU Robert Mugabes won these elections in 1980 with over 60% of the vote.

The years after independence were marked by the ZANU-directed terrorist measure Gukurahundi , which killed around 20,000 people, mostly Ndebele. In December 1987, Nkomo was forced to merge its ZAPU with ZANU to form ZANU-PF. With this, Mugabe had come closer to his goal of a one-party state . At the end of the 1990s, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formed a new opposition party that not only relies on the Ndebele, but even more on the urban middle class and increasingly on victims of the regime.

After the ZANU-PF had lost its majority in parliament for the first time in 2008, it received a two-thirds majority of the seats in the 2013 parliamentary elections. However, the election result remained controversial. The ZANU-Ndonga, which recently had no more seats in parliament, was again incorporated into the ZANU-PF in 2015.

Factions Generation 40 and Lacoste

In the course of settling the successor to President Mugabe, two factions emerged within the ZANU-PF in the mid-2010s :

According to his own statement, the term itself goes back to the information minister Jonathan Moyo, who claims to have used it for the first time in August 2011 in a post in the Zimbabwean Sunday Mail . He wanted to express that it was people of younger age who had led the fight for independence in the country on the front line. At the same time, he doubted the existence of such a faction and accused the media of having invented it.
  • The Lacoste faction, on the other hand, supported Emmerson Mnangagwa , long-time minister and vice-president of the country from 2014 until his dismissal in early November 2017. The name is an allusion to the trademark of the clothing brand Lacoste , a crocodile, and refers to both the danger of the animal and the totem of President Mugabe. The group tended to include older party members who had known each other since the time of the struggle for independence, especially leading military officers of the Zimbabwe Defense Forces .

The animosities between the factions and in particular the dismissal of Mnangagwa are considered to be the trigger for the military coup of 14/15 November 2017 .

Putsch and change of party leadership

On November 19, 2017, Mugabe was dismissed by the Central Committee after 42 years as party chairman and Emmerson Mnangagwa was named the new chairman. Numerous other members of the G40 generation, including Grace Mugabe , were expelled for life. Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri has been appointed as the new National Chairperson .

Members of the G40 wing founded the New National Party (NPF) in February 2018 , renamed the National Patriotic Party shortly afterwards . In the elections in July 2018 , ZANU-PF won an absolute majority of the seats in the House of Assembly , Mnangagwa was confirmed as president. The NPF received only one parliamentary seat.

structure

The structure of the ZANU-PF is based on models from the former Eastern Bloc . The party has a Politburo and a Central Committee ; the party chairman is the first secretary . There is also the National Chairperson . The members refer to each other as comrades ("comrades").

The party includes the women's and youth organizations Women's League and the Youth League .

The party symbol is the image of a building from Great Zimbabwe , the motto Unity, peace and development (for example: "Unity, peace and development"). The party flag shows, from the inside out, the colors black, red, yellow and green, the colors of the state flag.

The party headquarters are in Harare on the corner of Samora Machel Street and Rotten Row Street.

See also

literature

  • Daniel Compagnon: A Predictable Tragedy. Robert Mugabe and the Collapse of Zimbabwe . University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 2010, ISBN 978-0-8122-4267-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Why ZAPU entered into the Unity accord of December 1987. bulawayo24.com of December 21, 2013 (English), accessed November 30, 2017
  2. ↑ Mugabe's clear double victory taz-online on August 3, 2013, accessed on August 5, 2013
  3. ↑ Luthando Mapepa: 'Zanu-PF, Ndonga re-unification real.' bulawayo24.com of April 18, 2015 (English), accessed December 1, 2017
  4. ↑ Zimbabwe latest: Finance Minister Ignatius Chombo detained by military as 'criminals' rounded up. The Independent , November 15, 2017, accessed on the same day. (English)
  5. ↑ Who is really behind G40? The Zimbabwe Mail, October 14, 2017, accessed the following day (English)
  6. ↑ Factbox: Key figures in Zimbabwe First Lady Grace Mugabe's 'G40' faction. Reuters , November 15, 2017, accessed the following day. (English)
  7. ↑ Fight over Grace Mugabe's 'planned' ascendency to VP intensifies - report. The Zimbabwe Mail, October 19, 2017, accessed November 15, 2017
  8. ↑ Nhlalo Ndaba: Grace Mugabe in leadership race. The Times of South Africa, October 17, 2017, accessed November 15, 2017
  9. ↑ Moyo says he first used the phrase Generation 40 in 2011, moans its abuse in reference to a ZANU PF faction. ( Memento from November 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) New Zimbabwe, February 14, 2016 (English)
  10. ↑ Dumisani Ndlela: Team Lacoste takes over. Financial Gazette, November 3, 2016, accessed November 15, 2017
  11. ↑ How succession fallout started. Zimbabwe Independent, November 10, 2017, accessed November 15, 2017
  12. ↑ Report: Presidential seat sealed off. ORF, November 15, 2017, accessed on the same day.
  13. ↑ Mugabe deposed as head of the ruling party. In: orf.at. November 19, 2015. Retrieved November 19, 2017 .
  14. ^ A b List of people expelled from Zanu-PF following Central Committee meeting. news.pindula.co.zw from November 19, 2017 (English), accessed on November 30, 2017
  15. ↑ VP appointments: Zimbabwe in suspense . thezimbabwemail.com dated December 16, 2017, accessed December 16, 2017
  16. ^ New Patriotic Front. news.co.zw, accessed August 31, 2018
  17. ^ Website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs , accessed November 30, 2017
  18. ↑ a b website of the party (English), accessed November 30, 2017