The Unity Accord signed on 22 December 1987 by Cde Joshua Nkomo, leader of the Patriotic Front ZAPU and Cde Robert Mugabe, representing Zanu PF was one of the major political milestones in Zimbabwe’s political history since independence in 1980. The agreement ushered peace following a spate of widespread violence in Matabeleland provinces and part of the Midlands which left thousands of innocent people dead.
The Unity Accord was a successful attempt to get over that dark chapter in the history of the country.It sealed the relationship between two parties whose military wings, ZIPRA and ZANLA had waged a joint protracted war for more than a decade to dislodge the minority repressive regime of Ian Smith, the last white Prime Minister of Rhodesia.
Essentially, the two former parties irrevocably committed themselves, under the new agreement, to unite under the umbrella of Zanu PF, whose leader would be Cde Mugabe. Below him would be two vice presidents, one from each of the two former political parties. Zanu PF was represented by Cde Simon Muzenda, while the Patriotic Front ZAPU was represented by Cde Joshua Nkomo.
The leadership of the united party undertook to eliminate the violence in Matabeleland to pave way for development. This, however, was not the first time that the country’s leading political parties had tried to work together in one way or the other.
Both parties had embarked in the mid 1960s on armed struggle after realising that it was the only method to end colonialism. Cde Nkomo’s party received support from the former Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic while Cde Mugabe’s party was assisted by the Chinese, Cubans, Romanians and other eastern bloc countries.
Both parties also received enormous support from African countries notably Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, which were the spring board for their military cadres into Rhodesia, as the country was called before 1980. In 1975, the two parties formed the Zimbabwe People’s Army, ZIPA, a joint 18 member military council led by Rex Nhongo to plan new strategies for the liberation war but ZIPA died a natural death soon after.
The following year, the parties united under the Patriotic Front and attended the Geneva Conference that was presided over by former British ambassador to the United Nations, Ivor Richard. Despite his diplomatic experience, Ivor Richard failed to end the political wrangle in the former British colony and the armed struggle would continue until 1979 when the British brokered a peace conference at Lancaster House in London.
It was here that the two parties, under the name Patriotic Front, for 14 weeks negotiated for a peace settlement, the Lancaster House Agreement, with Ian Smith and Bishop Abel Muzorewa as Prime Minister in the short-lived Zimbabwe Rhodesia.