Zanu-PF
ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front) has been the ruling party in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, led by Robert Mugabe, first as Prime Minister, and then as President from 1988.
Zimbabwe African National Union
Zimbabwe African National Union was a party founded by Ndabaningi Sithole and Herbert Chitepo in 1963, and Sithole nominated Mugabe as secretary general. It was promptly banned in 1964 by the white minority government of Ian Smith, of Rhodesia, as the country was known at that time. Sithole and Mugabe were jailed for their activities, released only in 1974.
On 18th March, 1975 Herbert Chitepo was assassinated in Lusaka, Zambia with a car bomb. Mugabe was nominated to lead ZANU. Later that year there was a factional split along tribal lines, and the Ndebele followed Sitole into the moderate Zanu (Ndonga) party, who renounced violent struggle, while the Shona followed Mugabe with a more militant agenda.
Elections
Sithole joined a transitional government of whites and blacks in 1979, but his small breakaway opposition group failed to win any seats in independent elections that swept Mugabe to power in 1980, still under the ZANU flag.
In 1988 after 8 years of low-level civil war termed Gukurahundi, the opposition Zimbabwe African People's Union, (ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo, merged with ZANU to form Zanu-PF with the added moniker of Patriotic Front, in what was seen as a step towards a one party state.
Officially, ZANU-PF is socialist in ideology, and is modelled on communist parties in other countries, and had links with the communist regime North Korea.
In reality, the party was more pragmatic, acknowledging the importance of a mixed economy. However, Mugabe has since pursued a more dogmatic approach on the issue of land redistribution, forcibly acquiring large farms, usually owned by the white minority. Officially, this is for the benefit of landless black peasants, but critics of this policy argue that it is to maintain his grip on power.