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Chiefs controlled by Mnangagwa, Mabiza in Gukurahundi process: Ibhetshu LikaZulu

A local pressure group, Ibhetshu LikaZulu, is accusing President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Attorney General Virginia Mabiza of micromanaging the Gukurahundi Community Outreach Programme, reducing traditional leaders to mere implementers as the resolution process continues to stir controversy.

Speaking during a discussion on CITEโ€™s X Spaces current affairs programme, This Morning on Asakhe, on Tuesday about whether chiefs can effectively resolve the Gukurahundi issue, Ibhetshu LikaZulu Secretary General, Mbuso Fuzwayo, described the programme as heavily controlled by the presidency and the Matabeleland Peace-Building Outreach Programme Secretariat, led by Mabiza.

READ: https://cite.org.zw/chiefs-alone-cannot-resolve-gukurahundi%EF%BF%BC/

โ€œYou will realise there is a lot of micromanagement. People will call it the chiefs process but it is a Mabiza and Mnangagwa process because they are the ones calling the shots,โ€ Fuzwayo said. โ€œThe chiefs are just implementing what they are told. At the end of the day, Mabiza and  Mnangagwa are the ones who will have the technical team to process the information.โ€ 

During the official launch of the Gukurahundi Community Outreach Programme in July last year, Deputy president of the National Chiefs Council, Chief Fortune Charumbira revealed the exercise was President Mnangagwaโ€™s personal project, which he was rolling out with the assistance of chiefs.

READ: https://cite.org.zw/gukurahundi-outreach-program-is-mnangagwas-personal-project-charumbira/

While the chiefsโ€™ outreach programme seeks to foster reconciliation, critics have pointed out how the design of the Gukurahundi Community Outreach Programme, dominated by central government figures, undermines its credibility and effectiveness. 

File Pic: President Emmerson Mnangagwa receives Gukurahundi manual from Chief Fortune Charumbira at State House in Bulawayo.

Fuzwayo also pointed to remarks made in Parliament as evidence of the programmeโ€™s centralisation by the presidency.

โ€œThe Nkulumane MP once asked for legislation on the Gukurahundi process, and the Speaker of the National Assembly responded that โ€˜the results will be made public if it suits the president.โ€™ This clearly shows that it is not a chiefsโ€™ process but a Mabiza and Mnangagwa process supported by people like Thabani Mpofu,โ€ he said.

READ: https://cite.org.zw/mp-pushes-for-gukurahundi-legislation/

The human rights activist also highlighted how the current approach lacks critical elements for genuine resolution, such as acknowledgment of wrongdoing and truth-telling.

โ€œIf you want to resolve something, you must first acknowledge that something happened. Someone must take responsibility and say, โ€˜This wrong happened, and I am responsible,โ€™โ€ Fuzwayo argued.

โ€œWho should acknowledge? It is the one who sent the military to go to communities.โ€ 

READ: https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/42456-zimbabwe-mugabe-is-buried-not-the-past.html

Fuzwayo also criticised the absence of opportunities for victims to directly address perpetrators, noting meaningful reconciliation requires open dialogue between the two parties. 

โ€œThere has to be a truth telling aspect. The truth telling aspect is not the victim speaking to the chief but it is an opportunity where the victim can speak to the perpetrator and the perpetrator speaks to the victim and the country,โ€ he added 

Fuzwayo added there was lack of clarity on whether the military or other implicated parties would participate in the process. 

โ€œAt the present moment, this process does not allow the perpetrators to speak. We are not told when the military is going to speak. So it is not a complete thing because you are saying  the victims will speak,โ€ he said.

โ€œIn Silobela, people were forcibly disappeared. The only witnesses are relatives and those who saw them being taken. They know the perpetrators were driving Land Rovers at night, but they donโ€™t know what happened after that.โ€

Fuzwayo likened the current Gukurahundi process to resolving a family dispute without addressing the root cause. 

โ€œEven in communities when a girl falls pregnant, when families are trying to resolve the matter there has to be a person responsible for the pregnancy. This sounds like a matter whereby a girl is impregnated by the Holy Spirit (because the person responsible is absent from the talks),โ€ said the activist. 

He argued that Zimbabweโ€™s resolution process should have followed models like South Africaโ€™s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which prioritised truth-telling even without a justice component. 

โ€œAt least the South African process acknowledged the truth, but this one has nothing. Victims are allowed to speak, but there is no restorative justice or accountability,โ€ Fuzwayo said.

Meanwhile, Fuzwayo also accused the government of trying to erase the memory of Gukurahundi through deliberate actions, such as converting Bhalagwe – a site where atrocities were committed into a Heroes Acre.

โ€œIn the early 2000s, Bhalagwe was designated a Heroes Acre. You canโ€™t turn a crime scene into something positive by giving it a good name. This is a way of erasing memory,โ€ he said.

Ibhetshu LikaZulu has erected memorial plaques in places like Bhalagwe and Silobela to honour victims, but these have been repeatedly destroyed or stolen.

READ: https://cite.org.zw/gukurahundi-memorialisation-the-fight-for-justice-in-zimbabwe/ย 

โ€œWe put up four plaques at Bhalagwe and all were destroyed. In Silobela, two plaques commemorating 10 forcibly disappeared men were stolen. It is not criminals but it is the State that has removed all the plaques that we have erected, so itโ€™s a process of trying to erase memory.  

Fuzwayo described the destruction and theft of plaques as a systematic effort by the State to micromanage how the Gukurahundi narrative is preserved and disseminated. 

โ€œWhen it comes to memory work in Zimbabwe, the State wants to micromanage what must be known, how it should be known,โ€ said the activist.

Lulu Brenda Harris

Lulu Brenda Harris is a seasoned senior news reporter at CITE. Harris writes on politics, migration, health, education, environment, conservation and sustainable development. Her work has helped keep the public informed, promoting accountability and transparency in Zimbabwe.

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One Comment

  1. The current process is just a comical drama being staged with the hope that the memories of the genocide will fade away…

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