Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko has torn into ZAPU leader Dumiso Dabengwa who he calls an architect of ZANU-ZAPU unity from as early as 1972, as he said the latter should be the last person to seek to revive ZAPU.
Speaking at the weekend, VP Mphoko poured cold water on Dabengwa weakening  the latter’s efforts to recover properties seized by Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF during the infamous Gukurahundi massacres in which 22,000 Ndebeles were killed.
Mphoko’s statement comes as Dabengwa announced his party has managed to compile all assets seized by Mugabe and is finalising court procedures for their ultimate reclamation.   “We have come up with an inventory in order to reclaim our property…Our legal team is currently making consultations on the quickest possible methods of recovering the properties,” Dabengwa said last month.
But the VP, a ZIPRA war veteran who was Dabengwa’s junior, described Dabengwa’s work as futile and of void any legal standing. He said the Unity Accord (of 1987) signed between Robert Mugabe and the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo is fully in force 42 years after it was envisioned and 27 years after it was signed.
“It is surprising that Dabengwa claims to be reviving Zapu because he was a pivotal player in the unity between Zapu and Zanu as early as 1972,” he said.
He continued, “We were together in Mbeya and as chairman of the revolutionary council he was the one responsible for sending myself and Lookout Masuku to go and talk to the Zanu leadership about the need for unity. The unity which was later sanctified by the Unity Accord of 1987 has its roots during the struggle and Dabengwa is aware of that,” Mphoko added.