By LIZWE SEBATHA
MTHWAKAZI Republic Party (MRP) leader Mqondisi Moyo has said any government initiative towards resolving Gukurahundi will not work as they dismissed President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s meeting with traditional leaders in Bulawayo today as meaningless.
Mnangagwa met members of the National Chiefs Council (NCC) at the State House in the country’s second city where it was resolved to allow a victim-centred process and case by case exhumations and reburials.
The meeting came after chiefs conducted a two-week consultative process with unnamed Matabeleland civic society organisations and the clergy on issues affecting Matabeleland, particularly the unresolved 1980’s massacres.
However, in reaction, the MRP said there will never be any closure on Gukurahundi without a truth-telling commission and Mnangagwa stepping aside.
“Let me reiterate that as MRP and Mthwakazi in general, meaningful Gukurahundi related talks should begin with the establishment of a truth-telling commission that will operate independent of Zanu PF and government,” Moyo said.
“It is the people of Mthwakazi who should truly lead the process, not Mnangagwa and Zanu PF, not Mnangagwa aligned chiefs but chiefs who are known for integrity and serving with distinction.
“Mnangagwa led negotiations are unacceptable. How can the perpetrator be a referee? It has been said that other people have been invited to the planned meeting.”
Mnangagwa has been mentioned as having been one of the key players in Gukurahundi as he was a State Security minister at the time of the massacres.
“We would listen to Mnangagwa when he talks about inviting the international community to set up an independent truth-telling commission, a truly independent one, not composed of his friends outside Zimbabwe. We want them to confess having committed the atrocities. We want them to first refer to the genocide as genocide and not just disturbances.”
According to the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice (CCJP) over 20 000 people were killed in Matabeleland and Midlands when the late Robert Mugabe sent a North Korean trained force to ostensibly silence dissent and any attempts aimed at toppling his government.
This followed the discovery of arms caches at Zapu properties.
