Mr Dumiso Dabengwa

Leader of the Patriotic Front

Date of Birth: 06/12/1939

Dumiso Dabengwa, the former head of intelligence for the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army and a member of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front Politburo, emerged at a congress last month as interim Chairman of the Patriotic Front, which draws its support from the southern provinces of Matebeleland.

Dabengwa remains a popular figure partly because of his credentials from the liberation struggle and his criticism of the regime’s 1983-85 Gukuruhundi massacres in Matebeleland. He was subsequently detained.

Dumiso Dabengwa's public defection from the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front in February 2008 was a serious blow to the party. Dabengwa had been getting progressively more disenchanted with ZANU-PF and President Robert Mugabe’s rule, sometimes taking him on head-to-head at stormy Politburo meetings. Now Dabengwa and the Patriotic Front say they have dissolved the Unity Accord and demand the return of PF property that is in the hands of ZANU-PF.

The PF is scheduled to hold another congress to elect a new leadership; Dabengwa claims he will not stand. Meanwhile, with Cyril Ndebele, Dabengwa heads a Council of Elders to guide the transition. The new PF is expected to call for a federal constitution with substantial powers for the regions when the drafting of a new constitution begins. We hear that Vice-President Joseph Msika is not unsympathetic to these moves.