Traditional leaders from Matabeleland are meeting in Bulawayo to finalise plans for the long-awaited Gukurahundi Community Engagement Outreach Programme, a government-backed process aimed at addressing one of Zimbabwe’s darkest chapters.
The chiefs are engaging with the programme’s Steering Committee to review feedback from recent public awareness campaigns in Matabeleland North and South.
The rapporteurs who will document testimonies during the upcoming community hearings are also being trained.
A session of the National Council of Chiefs is expected on 15 June to approve operational plans and provide formal guidance for the rollout of the process.
The outreach programme seeks to offer a platform for survivors of the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres to share their experiences as part of a national healing and reconciliation effort.
A Command Centre has been established in Bulawayo to coordinate the hearings and support logistics.
Authorities have not provided a specific date for the start of the public hearings, which have faced multiple delays since President Emmerson Mnangagwa first announced the initiative in 2019.
In a recent interview with CITE, the National Chiefs Council President Chief Mtshane Khumalo said the public hearings which had been slated to start on June 16 were postponed due to resource constraints.
“June 16 was a proposed date, but unfortunately the hearings will not be starting on that day. Once everything is in order, we will advise,” he said.
Critics have accused the government of dragging its feet and lacking transparency in handling the sensitive process.
Civil society groups and survivors have repeatedly called for an independent truth commission to investigate the killing of thousands of civilians by the army’s Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands between 1983 and 1987.
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