Former president Robert Mugabe’s spiritual advisor, Father Fidelis Mukonori (FM) has said that everyone who participated in violence in the country will be answerable before God. Speaking in an exclusive interview with Blessed Mhlanga (BM), a senior reporter with The Standard, Mukonori who was Mugabe’s confidante since the days of the liberation struggle, said that Gukurahundi was not the only violence to have happened in Zimbabwe. He added that without holistically considering what really happened and why one would not understand those events. Below are excerpts from the interview.
BM: Do these things taint the legacy of the founding father of Zimbabwe?
FM: It taints the legacy of Zimbabwe, as well as you and I.
Maybe you were too young when it happened, but I am also tainted by what happened in the 80s and 70s before you were born.
There is no exclusionary in terms of violence and perpetration of violence and war.
There is no reason for looking into one side, Robert Mugabe had his responsibility. He has to answer and he will answer that before God.
So will any of his colleagues who went before him or will go after him who participated in the same onslaught of not only Gukurahundi but even the armed struggle, 70 000 people lost their lives in this country.
More: The Standard