ZANU
He founded and was chief architect of Zimbabwe African National Union party in August 1963 in conjunction with Herbert Chitepo, Robert Mugabe, Edgar Tekere in the Highfields House of Enos Nkala. In 1964 there was a party Congress at Gwelo, where Sithole was elected president and appointed Robert Mugabe to be his secretary general. ZANU was banned in 1964 by Ian Smith's government. He spent 10 years in prison after being arrested on 22 June 1964 alongside Mugabe, Tekere, Nyagumbo and Takawira for his political activities. While in prison he specifically authorised Chitepo to continue the struggle from abroad as a representative of ZANU. Sithole was convicted on a charge of plotting to assassinate Ian Smith. The two were released from prison in 1974.
On March 18, 1975 Chitepo was assassinated in Lusaka, Zambia with a car bomb. Mugabe, in Mozambique at the time, unilaterally assumed control of ZANU. Later that year there was a factional split, with many Ndebele following Joshua Nkomo into the equally militant ZAPU. Sithole eventually founded the moderate ZANU-Ndonga party, which renounced violent struggle, while the Shona-dominated ZANU (now called ZANU PF) followed Mugabe with a more militant agenda.
Sithole joined a transitional government of whites and blacks on 31 July 1979. Later in September 1979 he attended the Lancaster House Agreement chaired by Lord Carrington which paved the way for fresh elections, but his small ZANU Party failed to win any seats in independent elections that swept Mugabe to power in 1980.
Read more about this topic: Ndabaningi Sithole