CHIEFS in Matabeleland have been urged to invite President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and former Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi, who were involved in the 1980s Gukurahundi genocide in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces to meet the victims and formally apologise to facilitate closure.
This follows Mnangagwa’s weekend visit to Bulawayo where he
met traditional leaders from Matabeleland to discuss the emotive Gukurahundi
issue.
More than 20 000 unarmed civilians were butchered during
the 1980s genocide and the issue is still under discussion.
Sections of Matabeleland human rights groups were, however,
not impressed by a statement issued to the Press after the meeting by
Information ministry secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana. They said his utterances
during a Press conference watered down the emotive issue.
Mangwana had told the media that government will provide
social security benefits to the Gukurahundi victims, among other benefits.
“On the issue of social security benefits, this shall also
be resolved on a case-by-case basis. Issues have been clarified and this should
enable the chiefs to carry out their tasks, this issue is traditional and
should be dealt with traditionally by traditional leaders,” Mangwana said.
Bulawayo civil rights activist Thembelani Dube said
instead, chiefs should demand the release and publication of the Dumbutshena
Commission report and the Chihambakwe Commission report on the issue.
“They must also invite Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and Sekeramayi
to their areas to interface with the victims and apologise on behalf of
government. The affected tribes and communities cannot heal without truth
telling and punishment of perpetrators. They cannot do all what they are saying
they will do without acknowledging their misdeeds,” Dube said.
Rights activist Effie Ncube described the weekend meeting
between Mnangagwa and the chiefs as an electoral gimmick meant to buy time for
perpetrators and fool the people of Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.
“It is a perpetrator-driven and perpetrator-manipulated
waste of time. The Gukurahundi genocide cannot be resolved by chiefs period and
neither can it be solved by the perpetrator. The double standards are
unmistakable. They have an I don’t care attitude painted all over the
joke. They must set up an international
inquiry to sort out this issue,” Ncube said.
Nkayi resident Nkosilathi Ncube said: “We do not understand
what we will be talking about with our chiefs; some of them were not yet born
when the Gukurahundi massacres occurred. They have set parameters of what we
should talk about.”
Another human rights activist Nhlanhla Moses Ncube
said: “Mangwana says Gukurahundi was
traditional, does he mean killing of innocent people was a tradition, and it
means this should continue if it’s a tradition?
This is sad.” Newsday
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