5 August 2011 RE: MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY (SACP) 90TH ANNIVERSARY
On behalf of ZAPU and its entire leadership, I wish to express our profound gratitude to the South African Communist Party for the invitation to attend this great event, the 90th Anniversary of the SACP. The invitation is an inspiration to ZAPU and its entire membership in Zimbabwe and in the Diaspora.
ZAPU salutes the SACP for having weathered the storm of repression by the South African apartheid regime for 73years. It also congratulates the SACP for its outstanding contribution, jointly with the ANC, for the establishment of democracy in South Africa. Today South Africa is a leading democracy in Africa.
Solidarity between ZAPU and the SACP dates back to the 1960s, under the umbrella of ZAPU and ANC alliance. The solidarity was based on political, ideological and military issues. On the ideological and political front, ZAPU worked very closely with the members of the SACP, for example, people like comrades Moses Mabhida and Joe Slovo.
The SACP also supported ZAPU in its military operations against the Rhodesian forces and the South African paramilitary units which were operating in Zimbabwe. Some of the SACP members who were cadres of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) were involved in the 1967 Hwange area battles and in the 1968 Guruve area battles one of them, whose name will not be forgotten, because of his outstanding military operations as a commander. Under the joint command of comrades Chris Hani of MK and John Dube of ZPRA, the ZPRA and MK forces launched large scale military operation in the Hwange area in 1967, against the Rhodesian forces and the South African paramilitary units. They inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, which it had never experienced before.
The 1967 and 1968 military operations carried out by ZPRA and MK forces demonstrated to the people of Zimbabwe that the enemy was not invincible as it claimed.
Despite the difficulties that ZAPU experienced since 1980, it still maintains its principle which made it to enter into the alliance with ANC and SACP in 1966.
As ZAPU, we declare the readiness for close cooperation with the SACP in an effort to develop real democracies in our respective countries.
ZAPU`s mission, together with the people of Zimbabwe is to develop a democratic state; a state that protects promotes and respects all human rights (economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights) without distinction of any kind, such as race, ethnicity religion, etc. In short, a state that promotes and protects social justice and human-well-being for all.
Long live solidarity between ZAPU and SACP
Long live the ZAPU and ANC alliance
Long live ANC and SACP alliance.
Dr. Ralph. Mguni
Secretary General, ZAPU