Southerton Member of Parliament Gift Chimanikire said Zimbabweans must be taught the true history of the country not propaganda or something distorted to suit the present Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.
He said the first president of ZANU was Ndabaningi Sithole and not “His Excellency Cde. Robert Mugabe”.
“When we talk about history, some of the leading commanders of ZANLA forces were defectors from ZIPRA. These were Rex Nhongo and Josiah Tongogara. They moved from ZIPRA camps to ZANLA camps to spearhead the struggle,” Chimanikire said during the debate on the need to teach basic history to Members of Parliament and schools which was introduced by Buhera West legislator Oliver Mandipaka.
“The formation of the Patriotic Front in 1979 was because of pressure that was coming from the Organisation of African Unity. It is not like we started being united as we are today talking of ZANU PF,” he said.
“The PF was the Patriotic Front that was formed and spearheaded by the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. That is history. Under the organisation of African Unity, what happened was that ZIPRA and ZANLA were told that, unless if you go with a united front under a political wing, which is called the Patriotic Front, we will not be able to support you in your negotiations with the British for independence.”
Chimanikire said he was a member of the People’s Movement, the internal wing of ZANU before independence and then joined ZANU-PF before moving to the Movement for Democratic Change.
It was therefore important to narrate the true history of the country dating back to the African National Council, then the National Democratic Party and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union. Even the MDC, he said, was part of the history of Zimbabwe.
“Let it not be a vendetta to say, why is there the MDC because before the formation of ZANU which became ZANU PF later, there was ZAPU. Before the formation of ZAPU, there was NDP. The advent of MDC–T is just one cog in a wheel of history from where we are coming from because some of us came from ZANU PF and now we are MDC-T. From MDC-T, we now have three vice presidents and you still have two..”
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