THE revived Zapu which held its special congress over the weekend has started a legal process to recover properties that were confiscated by the government in the early 1980s after discovery of arms caches at farms owned by the then Joshua Nkomo-led party.
The party’s special congress recommended the setting up of a legal committee that will compile an inventory of all Zapu property.
The committee after compiling the inventory is expected to institute a legal process towards the recovery of the property which includes farms and other business entities.
Zapu spokesperson, Smile Dube, said the legal committee was working flat out to complete the process as early as possible.
 “We have started the process of recovering all Zapu properties that was not handed back to us after it was seized by the government and once the process of coming up with an inventory is complete then we will move in to retain the property,” Dube said. Â
 He said the party expected the process to be competed in the coming month.
Zapu properties that are still under the control of the government are Magnet House in Bulawayo, which houses the regional headquarters of the state security agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), and Castle Arms Motel and Snake Park in Harare among others.
Some of the Zapu properties are run through a company, Nitram Holdings, which represents the interests of Zipra cadres.
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Nitram properties were purchased through contributions by former Zipra fighters from their 1980 demobilisation payouts.
After the unity accord in 1987, President Robert Mugabe’s government refused to hand back the PF Zapu properties seized in 1982 during the height of Gukurahundi in Matabeleland and Midlands.
In 2004, Zanu PF claimed the properties had been returned to PF Zapu, but this was denied by its former leaders who said the properties were in the hands of third parties linked to the ruling party.
The Zapu congress held last weekend endorsed a resolution for an immediate withdrawal from an accord signed by the late veteran nationalist and founder president, Joshua Nkomo and President Robert Mugabe merging PF-Zapu and Zanu PF.
Delegates to the congress were drawn from the country’s 12 provinces. Represented also were chapters in South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland and Canada.
BY LOUGHTY DUBE
