ZAPU, Thursday, celebrated its 59th anniversary, with party members saying the ideals of the liberation struggle have not been achieved under the Zanu PF leadership.
The revolutionary party was formed in 1961, whose aim for political struggle was motivated to improve quality of life for majority blacks and their social welfare.
But the party laments that its motivation to join both the political and liberation struggle against the whites have not yielded much economic emancipation for Zimbabweans.
“We are convinced that a ZAPU government would give priority to improving the welfare of citizens even in the face of economic deterioration. Of course, a comprehensive and lasting solution to social problems is not possible without good governance, particularly getting rid of corruption, nepotism, tribalism, gender discrimination and other forms of exclusion,”said ZAPU Acting Secretary Mildred Mkandla at the party offices in Bulawayo.
Mkandla lamented the socio-economic challenges the country is going through.
She said due to that realisation, ZAPU had to revive its Social Welfare Department.
“Our late president, Dr Dumiso Dabengwa found it necessary to reconstitute this ZAPU Department of Social Welfare although while we could take a broad view of socio-economic challenges we needed to organise our various interventions and to keep building our party capacity to respond,” Mkandla said.
The social welfare secretary noted there was a need to enhance ZAPU’s capacity for it to respond to socio-challenges, as the range and scale of problems faced by party members and ordinary citizens had grown.
“In the course of doing our work in the last few years, it has become apparent that we need to build and in some cases enhance systems and our capacity. For instance, given the decline of national and local authority services there must be better awareness of alternatives provided by voluntary agencies and charitable organisations so people can receive assistance,” she said.
“I praise our office of the Treasurer General that has shown great flexibility to facilitate speedy collection of financial contributions to respond to crises and emergencies. However nothing beats the establishment of a fund for use in emergencies.”
ZAPU claimed it received no donor funds but sourced money from party members for its various social interventions.
“Things that have been done before 2020 have not been recorded and reported but a listing of some done this year shows the variety of interventions. Some of the practical interventions in crises the department undertook included providing support to Bulawayo’s Covid-19 prevention, intervened in Luveve during the outbreak of water- borne diseases and loss of life, supported residents in Binga District during floods by organising clothing and utensils for affected communities, groceries and medical supplies to Veteran- Moffat Hadebe who fired the first shot against Rhodesian forces in 1964,” Mkandla said.
