A Bulawayo activist was on Friday forced to beg former
South African president Kgalema Motlanthe to save him from “abduction” by
police after speaking about Gukuruhundi during hearings into the August 1 army
killings.
Wisdom Mkhwananzi was later beaten and arrested by police
officers at a city hotel foyer and was detained at the Bulawayo Central police
station for wading into the Gukurahundi massacres while giving his evidence.
Mkhwananzi is one of the witnesses who gave evidence during
the drama-filled inquiry into the killing of six people in Harare by the army
during post-election protests.
Chaos marred the Motlanthe commission’s visit to Bulawayo,
as the unresolved Gukurahundi issue took centre stage, which saw riot police
bringing water cannons to quell the disturbances.
The inquiry was twice adjourned as tempers flared, with
activists demanding that the commission stops “wasting people’s time” by not
showing the enthusiasm and zeal into expanding its scope and dealing with the
1980s mass killings.
Mkhwanazi was only released at night following the
intervention of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo, an activist who also witnessed
Mkhwananzi’s arrest, said the crowd tried in vain to stop the police from
brutalising him.
“I could see tears and desperation on his face [after he was
given a cold shoulder by the commission] and something inside me immediately
told me I must attend to him and help him in whatever little way I could,” he
said.
“I knew perfectly well that if police had already been
ordered to arrest him there was no way he was going to evade the arrest.”
Fuzwayo said the police brutality was not warranted.
“The way they arrested that young man despite our pleading
to wanting to cooperate with them was extremely unwarranted,” he said.
“The truth that needs to begin manifesting into our state
security is that Gukurahundi issues can no longer continue to be suppressed.
“A new generation of these young people has come up. They
want to talk and the best that can be done is to listen to them and provide
them with platforms to talk than try to suppress them like was done to our
fathers.“
Bulawayo police spokesperson Chief Inspector Precious
Simango was not available for comment.
The emotive Gukurahundi issue remains unresolved decades
after former president Robert Mugabe sent a North Korean-trained army unit to
crush supposed opposition to his rule, resulting in the killing of over 20 000
civilians.
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