The Deputy President of the National Council of Chiefs, Fortune Charumbira, has confirmed that the Gukurahundi Community Outreach Programme is a personal project of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is rolling it out with the assistance of traditional leaders.
Chief Charumbira’s remarks came during his closing address at the official launch of the outreach programme by President Mnangagwa at the Bulawayo State House on Sunday.
These remarks corroborate the views expressed by various commentators who have long asserted that the Gukurahundi community programme is a top-down approach driven by President Mnangagwa. Said Charumbira (via CITE):
So I’m lucky. We are lucky also to be blessed by the president who said, ‘This thing of Gukurahundi, it’s mine as president, I am the owner with the chiefs council. The two of us don’t want anyone to interfere. We asked him ‘we have politburo’ (who may question this) and he said, ‘tell them to come to me’.
Meanwhile, political commentator Brighton Mutebuka said President Mnangagwa’s efforts to address the Gukurahundi atrocities will fall short unless comprehensive measures are taken.
These include ensuring proper justice, healing, honesty, specialist support (such as counselling), dignified burials, accountability, issuance of identity documents, estate resolution, and fair compensation for victims and their families. Said Mutebuka:
Having waited for so long, the victims deserve a credible process. As to what is credible or not – this can only be adequately addressed via a genuine consultative process involving victims and their family members.
ED and the State should not be anywhere near that process. This is because they face accusations of being the perpetrators in the first place.
Their active involvement leaves them open to charges of creating an intimidatory atmosphere – which defeats the very objective that is ostensibly being sought.
Gukurahundi refers to a series of massacres and human rights abuses committed by the Zimbabwean government’s Fifth Brigade against civilians, primarily in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces between 1983-1987.
Estimates suggest that up to 20,000 civilians were killed during this period, though the exact death toll is disputed.
Some historians, human rights groups, and victim communities have characterised Gukurahundi as a genocide, citing the targeted killings of the Ndebele ethnic group by the government.
However, there is a lack of consensus among scholars and international bodies about whether the Gukurahundi events meet the legal definition of genocide, which requires proof of intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
More: Pindula News