Mnangagwa To Launch Gukurahundi Hearings
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to officially launch the Gukurahundi Community Engagement Outreach Programme this Sunday at State House in Bulawayo.
Ndavaningi “Nick” Mangwana, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, told state media that several Ministers whose portfolios are relevant to the exercise will be in attendance.
Traditional leaders and various other stakeholders are also expected to participate in the event. Said Mangwana:
His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa is coming to Bulawayo to launch the Gukurahundi community engagement outreach programme.
This initiative is considered to be of high national importance but His Excellency the President will be launched tomorrow, Sunday the 14th of July 2024 at the State House in Bulawayo.
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A number of key Ministers whose portfolios have a role in the exercise will be in attendance. These include the Minister of Local Government and Public Works Hon Daniel Garwe, the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Hon Kazembe Kazembe, the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Hon Dr Jenfan Muswere, the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Hon July Moyo among others.
The programme will include presentations of reports and manuals by the president of the National Council of Chiefs, Chief Senator Mtshane Khumalo.
Chief Khumalo said that these hearings being rolled out will be the correct platform to make any submissions. He said:
I know that a lot of things are being said, which I don’t want to comment on pertaining to this programme. But what we are requesting as traditional leaders is that this is an opportunity for the people to come to the meetings and say whatever they wish to see being done.
It has been dragging on for some time and we hope at the end of the community hearings we will come to a solution. So, we are requesting that they (people) attend community hearings.
Gukurahundi refers to a series of massacres of Ndebele people carried out by the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces of Zimbabwe between 1983 and 1987.
It was a violent suppression of perceived “dissidents” and “insurgents” by the government of Robert Mugabe against the Ndebele ethnic minority in the early years of independent Zimbabwe.
Estimates suggest that between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians were killed during the Gukurahundi massacres.
The massacres were carried out by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade of the ZNA.
The government at the time labelled the victims as “dissidents” and justified the killings as necessary to restore order and unity in the country.
Gukurahundi is widely considered one of the worst episodes of mass violence and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe’s history.
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