Father Fidelis Mukonori who was the spiritual adviser to the late founding leader of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has said that he advised both Mugabe and former vice president, Joshua Nkomo to address the Gukurahundi massacres in the public. Mukonori was speaking to Blessed Mhlanga, a senior reporter at The Standard in an exclusive interview. Below are excerpts from the interview.
BM: Some would say he will be remembered more for his role in the Gukurahundi massacres, which were exposed by the Catholic Church? He never apologised for the killings. Do you think such things ever bothered him?
FM: The exposition was not a new thing to those who were fighting. The Patriotic Front was made of PF Zapu and Zanu PF, Zipra forces and Zanla forces.
If you remember the statement where he said “it was a moment of madness”, I don’t know what you want to call that whether it was an apology or not.
It’s an issue that I discussed with him in person and I discussed the same issue with his vice-president Joshua Nkomo.
It’s an issue, which some people in Zimbabwe would not be in a position to understand and the matrix pertaining to that issue.
People will not know what happened, why it happened.
One death is too many after 70 000 lives were lost in the liberation war. We did not need more bloodshed, not even a drop. I said to both of them, I believed it was essential for the two one day to address the people of Zimbabwe regarding the Gukurahundi issue.
BM: And that never happened.
FM: I left the two of them to discuss and come to an agreement to say should they do it, because I believe the two knew what happened and why it happened and what made that moment of madness to occur.
More: The Standard