In 1961 he became the leader of ZAPU; in 1976 he formed the Patriotic Front with Robert Mugabe, leader of ZANU, and was appointed to a Cabinet post in Mugabe’s government of 1980. Dismissed from his post in 1982, he returned to the Cabinet in 1988, when ZANU and ZAPU agreed to merge, and was Vice-President (1990–96).