National Assembly Speaker, Jacob Mudenda, has urged the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) to bring closure to the Gukurahundi issue before the 2023 elections.
Gukurahundi is a term used to refer to a military operation in Matabeleland and Midlands in the 1980s which resulted in the death of an estimated 20 000 Ndebele people.
Addressing the NPRC Commissioners during their induction on the role and functions of Parliament, Mudenda said the NPRC’s responsibility is to build national consensus for the peaceful resolution of human conflict. He said:
Parliament is desirous to see how the NPRC leverages its constitutional mandate vis-à-vis the salutary efforts by the Council of Chiefs, as guided by His Excellency, the President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in bringing closure to the Gukurahundi unfortunate historical antecedent before the 2023 harmonized elections.
It is axiomatic to note that the Constitution, the NPRC Act, and the NPRC Regulations impose an onerous responsibility in building national consensus, whose bedrock ought to be sustainable human conflict and solutions which must emanate from the co-existential culture of tolerance and respect for the other human dignity.
In August last year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced that chiefs will take a lead in resolving the issue of Gukurahundi, but not much has been done.
In recent days, political commentators have expressed doubt over the Government’s willingness to address the Gukurahundi issue after it emerged that Zimbabwe harboured Protais Mpiranya for four years before his death and burial in Harare in 2006.
Mpiranya, also known as Sambao Ndume, was a Rwandan war criminal who was internationally wanted for his alleged role in the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 but was found dead and buried in Harare in 2022 by United Nations investigators.