The ZANU–PF Building is a 15-story

high-rise building A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction ...

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, which serves as the headquarters of

ZANU–PF The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) is a political organisation which has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The party was led for many years by Robert Mugabe, first as prime minister wi ...

, the country's ruling party. The top floors of the building hold the offices of the ZANU–PF Politburo, lower floors hold other party offices, and the first floor is home to the ZANU Archives, which holds many records from the

Rhodesian Bush War The Rhodesian Bush War, also known as the Rhodesian Civil War, Second as well as the Zimbabwe War of Independence, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country U.D.I. ...

. The building hosts annual meetings of the party's politburo, central committee, and other organizations.

Location

The ZANU–PF Building is located in

, at the corner of

Samora Machel Samora Moisés Machel (29 September 1933 – 19 October 1986) was a Mozambique, Mozambican politician and revolutionary. A Socialism, socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the coun ...

Avenue and Rotten Row, next to Willoughby Crescent.

History

Fundraising for a new

headquarters began on 24 October 1983, when the party set a goal of raising Z$15 million in one year. Ultimately paid for by the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

, construction began in the late 1980s, and the building was completed in 1990. Constructed during the post-independence building boom, the ZANU–PF Building, unlike many others at the time, was designed by Zimbabwean architects, Peter Martin and Tony Wales-Smith. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest building in

. It became nicknamed the "Shake Shake" building, for its resemblance to

Chibuku Shake Shake Chibuku is a commercial sorghum beer based on the traditional Umqombothi homemade African beers; the main grains used are malted sorghum and maize but may also contain millet. The brand name "Chibuku" comes from Max Heinrich's habit of recording ...

, a type of

sorghum ''Sorghum bicolor'', commonly called sorghum () and also known as great millet, broomcorn, guinea corn, durra, imphee, jowar, or milo, is a species in the Poaceae, grass genus ''Sorghum (genus), Sorghum'' cultivated for its grain. The grain i ...

beer sold in

carton A carton is a box or container usually made of liquid packaging board, paperboard and sometimes of corrugated fiberboard. Many types of cartons are used in packaging. Sometimes a carton is also called a box. Types of cartons Folding cartons ...

Architecture

The ZANU–PF Building is a 15-story grey concrete structure, topped by a large

emblem An emblem is an abstract art, abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a monarch or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and ''symbol'' ...

of a

cockerel The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

, a symbol of ZANU–PF. It is of the

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

style, and is sometimes described as

Brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:ZANU-PF Building Buildings and structures in Harare Headquarters of political parties Office buildings completed in 1990 Politics of Zimbabwe Postmodern architecture ZANU–PF 1990 establishments in Zimbabwe

Location

History

Architecture

See also

References