What lies b
ehind the ZANU-ZAPU conflict
Perry FREEMAN Harare - Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Robert Mugabe appeared to have imposed a certain stability upon his war-torn country at the end of 1981. Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was loudly proclaiming the need for a one-party state; but this was to be achieved through discussion with the other major nationalist party, Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU. There was no suggestion that the one-party state would imposed against ZAPU's will, and appeared to be favourably to Mugabe's overtures. The major security problem facing the government, the integration of ZANLA (ZANUPF), ZIPRA (ZAPU) and ex-Rhodesian units into a single force appeared to be proceeding smoothly. There had been no repeat of the inter-factional fighting which had taken place in December 1980 and February 1981.
But then, in January of this year, the government announced the discovery of ZAPU arms caches in areas throughout the country, but especially around Bulawayo, centre of Matabeleland, the region from which Nkomo draws most of his support. Mugabe accused Nkomo of plotting against his government. Nkomo and some other ZAPU cabinet ministers were dismissed from the coalition government.
army commander Masuku, and former ZIPRA intelligence chief Dimiso Dabengwa, both leading members of ZAPU, were detained without trial, along with many other members of their party. The government adopted a totally hostile attitude towards ZAPU.
At about the same time, the security situation in Matabeleland began to deteriorate. A spate of armed attacks on government official vehicles, as well as on stores and buses began. Desertions from the army increased at a rapid rate. In order to deal with the situation, the government launched massive security operations in Matabeleland. These included house-to-house searches and road blocks in Bulawayo and virtual counterinsurgency operations in rural areas.
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE EVENTS?
The breaking of the ZANU-PF/ZAPU alliance should be viewed as a deliberate change of policy by Mugabe, not as a result of an accidental discovery' of the plot. There is no doubt that all the faccached arms when it ended, as "insurance' for the future. ZAPU in particular wanted to be able to defend itself against forcible dissolution at the hands of the numerically superior ZANU-PF. Furthermore, many of the weapons had been sold to the South African ANC, with ZAPU has close links, for use in its guerrilla operations. So the existence of ZAPU caches does not necessarily indicate the existence of a plot. It is likely that the government knew of the arms caches a long time ago. Their 'discovery' represents a decision by ZANU-PF to abandon the strategy of unifying with ZAPU through persuasion and instead to create a one-party state through the crushing of its rival. This approach has advantages for ZANU-PF; it can crush more radical ZAPU elements.
The loss of government control in Matabeleland is only partly linked to the breaking of the coalition. There is no evidence that there is a ZAPU plot to destabilise the government, and Nkomo has frequently denounced the 'dissidents' (as the government has dubbed the Matabeleland bandits). But it is also clear that many of the 'dissidents' are ZIPRA exguerrillas who feel that the government has done nothing for them and does not represent them. And many peasants in Matabeleland are prepared to give them shelter because they share the 'dissidents' hostility to the government. Many of the 'dissidents' also have material reasons for their disaffection. Over two years after the war's end, many are unemployed, and some have not been paid their demobilisation benefits for ten or eleven months. The government's use of punitive measures against communities which fail to inform on dissidents are certainly having wholly counter-productive effects.
How has Mugabe's government got itself into such a situation? The roots of Zimbabwe's present problems have to be sought in the circumstances in which ZANU-PF came to power. As a result of the combined pressure of imperialism and the war-weary 'front line' African states (especially Zambia and Mozambique), the Zimbabwean nationalists had to accept independence in the framework of the Lancaster House agreement. The agreement was the brainchild of the then British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, and was the lineal descendant of previous Anglo-American proposals to ensure that the transition to Black rule in Zimbabwe took place with a minimum of threat to imperialist interests and without a genuine social transformation of the country. The agreement provided constitutional guarantees for private property and compulsory compensation in those limited cases where government appropriation of property was committed. Given that imperialism would use its whole economic weight in the country to prevent any breach of the agreement on this point, it is a powerful check on any attempt at nationalisation of industry or agriculture. The structures of the bourgeois colonial state were defended through the agreement's insistence that Smith and Muzorewa's civil servants would retain their jobs and pensions and would be under the control of a Public Service Commission which would prevent political "interference' in the civil service. The 'independence' of the judiciary -including Smith's hanging judges - was to be maintained. Most importantly, the guerrilla fighters of ZANLA and ZIPRA were to be integrated with ex-Rhodesian forces into a non-political 'National Army'.
Two years later, how has the Mugabe government been able to deal with this straightjacket?
It is certainly true that it has been able to carry out many important social and economic reforms, which have given it a wide popularity. A minimum wage for all grades of workers has been imposed Health care has been made available free to low-income earners and services in the rural areas have been expanded. Primary education has been made free and both it and secondary education have vastly expanded their intake of pupils. The government has supported campaigns against racism at work. Promotion of Blacks in government employment has been tremendously accelerated. Encouragement has been given to co-operatives although these are few in number. Unused or abandoned land on white farms is being acquired for the peasants. But, at a more fundamental level, the aims of Lancaster House have been achieved. Imperialist ownership of industry and finance remain. The huge white-owned farms are intact and secure. The structures of the civil service are as they were in Smith's day, despite a change of personnel, (and in many cases even the personnel are the same). The integration exercise in the armed forces has gone forward; and effectively the structure of the old Rhodesian army has absorbed that of the guerrilla armies.
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stood for a peaceful resolution to the
Although the was not agreed by the courts of the gov-
Why is it that ZANU-PF has not been able to produce a revolutionary solution to these fundamental problems? Above all the answer must be sought in the character of ZANU-PF as a party. Despite seen most clearly in the way in which the
Mugabe government has responded to the self-organisation of the masses.
When a wave of strikes against racist management practices and a great deal of socialist verbiage, it never
Solidarity with broke out at independence, ZANU-PF's developed an analysis of how to deal with leadership immediately responded with the settler state and imperialist capital.
Alexander
This lack of a revolutionary analysis is in large part due to the totally undemocratic speeches around the theme that the policies of the nationalist leadership dur-
Schubart ing the struggle; they always placed the maintenance of their control first, and liquidated or imprisoned a number of left calls for a return to work. Labour Minister Kangai made the first of many country could not 'afford'
December 1981, the government used and victimised strike leaders. In March wing currents in both ZANU-PF and
ZAPU. In power, ZANU-PF has increas- 1982, when bus drivers, employed by a Shortly after the Hessen state elections public company ingly adapted itself to the task of running in October the law suit against Alexander
British capital went on strike, the governa capitalist economy. In a recent speech, Schubart was due to start in the provin-
Mugabe proclaimed that although Zim- ment has 1000 arrested cial appeal court at Frankfurt. Schubart is the dismissal of 1800 workers.
babwe was a socialist country, it would the main spokesperson for the campaign not be necessary to nationalise any industries, and that there need be no conflict blished, not through democratic discuswith the interests of the business com- sion amongst the workers, but through a demonstration meeting of hand-picked trade unionists In short, the leadership of ZANU-PF presided over by the Minister of Labour. state authorities, and serious breach of has never transcended the limits of petty- The government has sponsored the estab- the peace. He faces a maximum sentence bourgeois nationalism in practice. While lishment of workers committees in facit was absolutely correct to give uncondi- tories and workplaces, which can be a Schubart initiated the call for a reftional support to ZANU-PF and ZAPU focus for worker organisations, but are erendum on the building of the west run- in their struggle against the Smith regime, barred from dealing with issues relating to way at Rhein-Main. More than 300,000 there must be no illusions now that their wages, and have no lateral links with each citizens, as demanded in the state consleaderships were or are of a revolutionary titution, signed. The regional government and the public knew that the application left critics of the ZANU-PF little support to the large numbers of pea- met the necessary legal conditions. On government have to answer an important sants who are squatting on the big white November 14,1981, the list was handed to their strictures on the farms. Only land which is unused or has to the Chief Observer of Elections.
regime's actions. It can easily be asked - been abandoned is being taken over for However, despite that, or perhaps what was the alternative? Having had utilisation by the peasantry, and such because of it, the woodcutters and power little alternative but to accept Lancaster land is in general being paid or compen- saw operators, protected by police began
House, and given that an attempt to tear sated for rather than expropriated. This up the agreement would have led to programme is in any case proceeding As the petition was presented 150,000 full-scale confrontation with imperialism extremely slowly and the mode of rein a highly unfavourable situation, could settlement is one of individual tenure. Schubart demanded a moratorium on
ZANU-PF have done anything construction work until the court should
Could any more radical a strategy have rule on the referendum, if the application of health and education have brought been adopted? was refused by the local government. Even in the post-Lancaster House situa- We would answer in the affirmative. administered through civil service struc- welcome improvements in the lives of the mass of the population, they have been The government were asked to stop work before noon November 15. One month tion there was a way to develop a revolu- tures in a way which has undermined later the presiding judge of the court did tionary mobilisation - a path that was local initiative and self-organisation. The allow the appeal, and work was tempotaken by the government. During the government is trying to establish a kind Alexander Schubart denounced the course of the armed struggle of the inde- of Social-Democratic welfarism which it decision of the movement against Runpendence election, powerful grassroots does not have the economic resources to way-West to organise a peaceful demorganisations had developed throughout sustain. In a country of this type, an all- onstration if the moratorium rural Zimbabwe. In most areas elected round transformation of social conditions party committees assumed effective control over the administration of their activity - it cannot be conferred from broken up by the police. To escape, the locality, totally usurping the functions of the racist regime's civil service. They highways , stopping the traffic around mobilised migrant workers in support of the nationalist movement. This mobilisa- regime was a tremendous and historical tion, which by its very nature involved victory for the Zimbabwean people. But government and the media created struggle around the social conditions of it has not grown over into a revolutionary atmosphere of the masses as well as the overthrow of overthrow of imperialist domination. For one thousand protestors were arrested white rule, could have been the basis of a the Zimbabwean masses, that remains the and charged. The Mayor of Frankfurt far exceeded his authority in suspending continuing anti-imperialist mobilisation. But far from attempting such a project, Schubart from his job as a civil servant with a lifetime appointment.
nationalist leadership, obeying the Although Schubart logic of Lancaster House, demobilised the demonstration he is charged with being mass movement, point, April 24, 1982, p. 12 the ringleader. control with that of the inherited state to criminalise someone machine, which had earlier been driven
The nature of the politicial process which is taking place in Zimbabwe can be
A national trade union centre was esta-
On the land, the government has given
While most of the reforms in the fields mass politicisation of the Smith-Muzorewa
See "Nationalist Demagogy