The Rhodesian Bush War, a conflict in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) between the white minority government of Ian Smith and the black nationalists of the ZANU and ZAPU movements
He reported to have been interned in Gonakudzingwa and Wha Wha prisons between 1967 and 1970, and to have been a prominent leader in Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), though these claims have been denied by some other elders of the campaigns.
At the 1974 general election he won the Harari African Roll constituency, standing with the unofficial support of the African National Council which had been set up by ZANU, ZAPU and FROLIZI.
ZNA's 'Seven Fives' were thrown into action in November 1980 against ZIPRA troops at the battle of Entumbane (near Bulawayo, Matabeleland), and later again after February 1982 by helping to put down the super-ZAPU insurgency in Matabeleland.
Ndlovu served as the ZAPU (and subsequently ZANU-PF) member of parliament for Insiza from 1985 until he lost the seat to the MDC in 2000.
Notable recipients included Martin Pearse, who was killed in Lusaka in 1979 during the attempted assassination by the Rhodesian SAS of the ZAPU insurgent leader Joshua Nkomo.
On 13 January, Joshua Nkomo, leader of ZAPU, returned to Southern Rhodesia after three years' exile and addressed a rally of between 100,000 and 150,000 at Highfield township in Salisbury.
He served as a legal advisor to the ZANU-PF and PF-ZAPU delegations at the Lancaster House Conference.
ZANU won the 1980 elections under the leadership of Robert Mugabe, and seven years later merged again with Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU to form ZANU-PF, the current governing party of the country.
Founded by Joshua Nkomo as president, Parirenyatwa as vice-president, Ndabaningi Sithole as chairman, Jason Moyo, Robert Mugabe as information and publicity secretary, Leopold Takawira as external secretary, at the request of Joseph Msika, ZAPU was banned in 1962 by the Rhodesian white minority government, and was later engaged in a guerrilla war against it.