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Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front
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The Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) is a Zimbabwean Socialist party that has been the ruling political party in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, led by Robert Mugabe, first as Prime Minister with the party simply known as ZANU, and then as President from 1988 after taking over ZAPU and renaming the party ZANU-PF.
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Zimbabwe African National Union was a party founded by Ndabaningi Sithole, Herbert Chitepo, Leopold Takawira and Henry Hamadziripi at former Defence minister Enos Nkala's house in Highfield in August 1963.[1] Coup attempt denies Hamadziripi national hero status] nd the Ndebele followed Sitole into the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party, who renounced violent struggle, while the Shona followed Mugabe with a more militant agenda. ZANU allied itself with the Zimbabwe African People's Union in the Patriotic Front, but they split after achieving majority rule. Mugabe won the 1980 elections.
In 1988 after eight years of low-level civil war termed Gukurahundi, the opposition Zimbabwe African People's Union, (ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo, merged with ZANU to form Zanu-PF with the added moniker of Patriotic Front, in what was seen as a step towards a one party state.
The Patriotic Front (PF) was originally formed in 1976 as a political and military alliance between ZAPU and ZANU during the war against white minority rule in Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia). The Patriotic Front included ZAPU, led by Joshua Nkomo and operating mainly from Zambia and ZANU (Zimbabwe National People's Union) led by Robert Mugabe and operated mainly from neighboring Mozambique. Both movements contributed their resp. military forces: ZAPU's military wing was known as Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and ZANU's guerrillas where known as Zimbabwe National African Liberation Army (ZANLA). Objective of the Patriotic Front was to overthrow the white minority regime of Ian Smith by means of political pressure and military force.
Their common goal was achieved in 1980 with the formal independence of Zimbabwe. During the 1980 election campaign the Patriotic Front alliance partners split into their respective factions and competed separarelty as ZANU-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and Patriotic Front-ZAPU (ZAPU-PF). The election was won by Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF, with Joshua Nkomo and his PF-ZAPU retaining a stronghold in the province of Matabeleland.
In December 1987 a Unity Accord was signed between the two parties; PF-ZAPU was merged into ZANU-PF, effectively establishing a one-party state dominated Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF. and Joshua Nkomo became one of two vice-presidents of Zimbabwe.
Officially, ZANU-PF is socialist in ideology, and is modelled on communist parties in other countries. The party maintains a politburo.[2] However, the party has abandoned much of the egalitarian aspects of communist ideology, instead choosing to pursue a mixed economy. However, Mugabe has since pursued a more populist approach on the issue of land redistribution, encouraging the seizure of large farms, usually owned by the white minority. Officially, this is for the benefit of landless black peasants, but critics of this policy argue that it is to maintain his grip on power and that supporters of his government benefit from the land redistribution much more than the wider landless population.[3]
He has also faced a major political challenge from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mugabe won 56.0 % at the presidential elections of 9 March - 11 March 2002.
At the December 2004 five-year conference, Joyce Mujuru, a Zezeru Shona like Mugabe and whose husband Solomon Mujuru is the retired head of the armed forces, was elevated to the post of vice-president of the party (the first woman to hold that office) at the expense of contender Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and his backer Jonathan Moyo the information minister and Emmerson Mnangagwa the former speaker of parliament.
The 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections were held on March 31, 2005. The party won 59.6 % of the popular vote and 78 out of 120 elected seats. Later that year, 26 November, it won 43 of 50 elected senators. The parliamentary election was disputed as being unfair. The leader of the opposition MDC party said, "We are deeply disturbed by the fraudulent activities we have unearthed," and various human rights groups reported that hundreds of thousands of 'ghost voters' had appeared on the electoral roll of 5.8 million people.[4]