Since 1980 the army and ZANUPF have always had an inxtricable relationship. The central committee that met and agreed to deploy 5th brigade in December 1983 had a lot of army generals. Generals like Mujuru, Zvinavashe, Tungamirai were active members of the Poliburo at some point.#Asakhe
After Gukurundi, Murambatsvina, 2008 there was an attempt in the 2013 constitution to separate the army from the party. The 2013 constitution has section 208( 3) which says "Members of the security services must not be active members or office-bearers of any political party or organization.".
The first violation of this clause was in 2017. When the command element came up with 7 demands, five of those demands were about ZANU-PF party and two were about conditions of service.
It is interesting that in 2017 a lot of people defended this violation and said the army was right..

On the day in 1986 Lieutenant General Lookout Masuku, a former commander of ZPRA died at the age of 46 .He was arrested in 1982 on charges of plotting a coup against Robert Mugabe.He was acquitted in 1983 but immediately detained again under emergency powers. At his burial… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… In August 1981,Lookout Masuku was appointed Deputy Commander of the Zimbabwe National Army. Masuku was known "For his reputation for diplomacy."Masuku was arrested in March 1982 after returning from an official trip to Asia. Dumiso Dabengwa & Swazini Ndlovu were also arrested.

In the Kalanga culture, some of the rituals of praying for rain include music for rain "praying" is for women and mayile.  Wosana music is performed by male and female dancers whereas mayile music is performed by females only.. #Asakhe, Wosana songs are sung by a special group of people, also called wosana.

Let's talk about the Mateleland vote #Asakhe Bulawayo and the 2018 elections
The Alliance received most of the seats for the house of assemble but
for the first time since 2000(MDC) got less than 50% of the vote. (49.5%)
ZANUPF got 25.1% of the vote

President Mnangagwa has appointed Frederick Shava,Zim's ambassador to UN, as his new foreign minister. Speaking in parliament in the early 80s Shava once said "I advise strongly the Mini of State Security 2 demand from dissidents & dissident supporters 2 eyes for one..#Asakhe two ears for one & never turn the other cheek...Supporters of dissidents should be shot on sight.
Mrs. Chinamano interjected :"Mr speaker this is the most desctructive...
MR SPEAKER .."on a point of order cde Chinamano will the minister continue please .. "

Bulawayo city council used to be one of the best run councils in the country and the region. This was becoz in 1980 ZAPU lost the national elections and deployed its best brains at the local level where they had won.#Asakhe ZAPU had a gvt in waiting. So people who were supposed to be ministers, directors, Perm sec, etc became councilors and technocrats at a local level. They set a very high standard of running a local authority

Chief Munhuwepayi Mangwende who was Biggie Matiza's uncle a strong ZAPU activist and the one who went with Matiza to Zambia was not declared a National hero when he died .#Asakhe There was a popular song in this area that went like, "Nkomo hatina zvikoro, Nkomo tinoda zvikoro".
In 1961 Munhuwepayi was deposed as Chief Mangwende for involvement in nationalist politics.He was later He was later detained at Gonakudzingwa .

Nitram Properties a short thread. #Asakhe Nitram properties was set up by ex Zpra combatants. About 15 000 combatants contributed ZW$50 each raising a total of ZW$750 000. There was also cash that was left from the war.

I have read a lot of bios the late ZPRA Commander Stanley Gagisa Doko Nleya and there is little that is said about him after 1980. Any special reason why? #Asakhe Talking to Gagisa in 2018. he said " We used to think that ZPRA military training was the toughest guerilla training South of the Sahara until we went to Lebanon. Gagisa was attached to to Palestine Liberation Organisation 1974-75.

In his paper titled " Black Workers from Zimbabwe in South Africa " J.Van H.Coetzer (1980) says a tradition of working seeking in South Africa had built up since Pre- World War 1 days.#Asakhe He says the largest and the only real problem from SA point of view is the Matebeleland Contigent comprising mainly the kalanga from Bulima Mangwe ( Plumtree),Tjolotjo and Matopo(Kezi)."Spending a period in Johhanesburg is a habit so firmly entrenched among the kalanga men..

A 2016 World Bank policy research working paper looked at the financial viability of electricity sectors in 39 sub-Saharan African countries.  #Asakhe It found that in 2014, South Africa’s power utility had the largest workforce out of the 39 countries – at 41,787. It also had the largest number of customers: just over 5.4 million.

Bulawayo power station the thread:The station has it's origins dating back to 1897. The first current being switched on , on 3rd November 1897 and full service introduced in 1898 with 100 customers connected. #Asakhe Byo was the 5th center in Sourthern Africa to have public electricity after Kimberly, Johhanesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town

Asked by a BCC journalist why Britain did not confront Mugabe on Gukurahundi , ROGER MARTIN ,British Deputy High Commissioner Zimbabwe, December 1983-86 said ..... #Asakhe "Among the short-term self-interest, the points you might have put in your analysis of what our interests were that no British Government wanted a couple of hundred thousand British citizens appearing with cardboard suitcases at Heathrow...

The Wankie and Sipolilo 12 campaigns : The thread. #Asakhe Formed in 1961, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK),
its aim was to carry out sabotage against
symbols of the apartheid state.

The past week i meet a lot of former ZPRA cadres & had a lot of stories.One of the person who was discussed a lot was ED becoz at one point he was part of ZPRA.These are some the things. Additions and subtractions are welcome #Asakhe. Around 1957 ED 's family relocates to Zambia

The following thread is the response by Binga chief , Chief Pashu on allegations that he insulted the First Lady. #Asakhe THE MANYANDA SECONDARY SCHOOL FISH POND FUNCTION 28/02/19 The following was my agenda:
Consultation, community input and invitation
2.Pashu community/ Binga District priority projects 4 sustainable development which are water, education and comm such as network, ZESA &roads

On this day in 1983 the 5th Brigade was deployed .The result was the gukurahundi genocide #Asakhe 1st batallion was deployed in Mat North areas covering Nkayi, Tsholotsho, Lupane, Bembesi and Bubi. 2nd battalion was deployed in Silobela.3rd battalion Gokwe.