Leopold Takawira - National Democratic Party

National Democratic Party

In late 1959, upon hearing that a new nationalist party was being planned to replace the banned Rhodesian African National Congress, he applied to join the new party, the National Democratic Party. In 1960 he was elected as Chairman of the Salisbury branch and member of the Central Executive. On 19 July 1960, Takawira was amongst a number of leading activists that were arrested on suspicion of belonging to the ANC. These arrests sparked unrest that became known as the March of the 7000. At a meeting on 21 September 1960, he was elected Interim President in place of Michael Mawema. At the party congress in November of that year, he stood for the post of President, but lost the contest Joshua Nkomo. One of Nkomo's first acts was to appoint Takawira as his replacement as Director of International Relations (based in London). In 1961 Takawira sent a strongly worded cable to Joshua Nkomo condemning the acceptance by the NDP delegation of the proposals for constitutional change. This led to an emergency trip to London and to a reversal of the NDP's stance.