The government’s announcement that more than 25 000 people have given testimony in the ongoing Gukurahundi Community Outreach Programme has confirmed the vast scale of the 1980s atrocities, reflecting decades of unspoken grief, unresolved trauma with communities still grappling with the social and economic aftershocks of the violence.
However, questions over the credibility of the national healing process continue to linger after the government has indicated the hearing phase could conclude within months.
This has led to growing calls for clarity on whether the testimonies will be made public or a transparent compensation framework would be established and if those responsible for the abuses will face prosecution.
This week, Attorney-General Virginia Mabiza, who heads the secretariat of the Matabeleland Peacebuilding Outreach Programme, revealed to state controlled media that the cumulative number of documented testimonies had now surpassed 25 000.
Mabiza indicated the community consultative programme, launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in July 2024 yet officially started last year in June could move towards conclusion within the next four months.
The hearings, spearheaded by traditional leaders across Matabeleland North and South, are part of what the government describes as a “home-grown solution” to solve the 1980s genocide.
However, for observers, the sheer number of testimonies collected four decades after the violence underscores the magnitude of the atrocities and raises urgent questions about truth-telling, accountability and compensation.
Bulawayo mayor and human rights lawyer David Coltart said the figure itself is telling.
“The fact that 25 000 people gave testimony regarding Gukurahundi human rights abuses over 40 years since they happened in itself demonstrates Gukurahundi’s horrendous scale,” he said.
Coltart was one of the contributors to the 1997 landmark report, Breaking the Silence, Building True Peace, compiled by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) and the Legal Resources Foundation.
The report documented widespread killings, torture and sexual violence in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands during the early years of independence.
“When we published ‘Breaking the Silence’ in 1997 we said it was written conservatively to make sure that its findings could never be challenged or disputed, which they haven’t ever been,” Coltart said.
“These testimonies show that the murders, rapes, torture and other abuses documented in ‘Breaking the Silence’ were just the tip of the iceberg.”
Between 1983 and 1987, the North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade carried out operations in Matabeleland provinces and parts of Midlands following allegations of dissident activity.
The crackdown left thousands of civilians dead and many more traumatised, according to civic groups.
Coltart said the next phase of the process would be crucial.
“The first question we now face is whether the testimony of these 25 000 witnesses is ever going to be published so that the public knows the truth,” he said.
“Secondly, what is the government going to do to compensate those who have suffered so much? Thirdly, what is the government going to do to bring the perpetrators of such abuse to justice? Finally, what is the government going to do to ensure that Zimbabweans are never again subjected to such crimes against humanity?”
These questions were echoed by political analyst Mxolisi Ncube, who expressed scepticism about the structure and intent of the current process.
“What should worry people most is that, if the government were this genuine about the process, why conduct a separate after-the-fact, closed-door hearing process instead of just using the already existing literature from the Chihambakwe and Dumbutshena reports, and civic group reports by the likes of the CCJP report?” he said.
Ncube noted some of those currently in government were part of the political establishment during the period under review.
“Some of the people who are in charge of the government right now are those who were directly involved in the atrocities, they know the reasons and impact of Gukurahundi in Matabeleland as well as the after-effects on the country’s social fabric,” he said, arguing the initiative risks being reduced to a symbolic exercise.
“I think this whole process lacks the genuine spirit of seeking to resolve the atrocities and is only meant to lead to a pre-planned ‘case-closed’ declaration of peace with neither reconciliation nor justice.
“It’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa desperately trying to give credence and substance to his ‘let bygones be bygones’ declaration, this time claiming it’s from the victims themselves.”
Ngqabutho Nicholas Mabhena, leader of the Zimbabwe Communist Party (ZCP), also raised concerns about transparency and questioned the reliability of the 25 000 figure in the absence of independent oversight.
“We do not have evidence that what the government is saying is accurate but we rely on the media to report. So if the government says it has received or collected 25 000 testimonials we do not know,” Mabhena said.
He pointed out that victims in the Diaspora may have been excluded and that the closed nature of the hearings, from which the media was barred, makes verification difficult.
“Because of the media blackout, we do not know if victims were able to present the testimonies without any fear or intimidation. Since this was a closed testimony, we suspect, given the nature of our body politics in Zimbabwe, that victims may have been intimidated to give testimonies,” he claimed.
Mabhena noted that compensation should not precede a full, independent investigation.
“In our view, when we talk of compensation it must be the last to be done after an international body has investigated the circumstances that led to Gukurahundi and the genocide’s modus operandi,” he said.
He questioned whether traditional leaders have the institutional capacity to handle such a complex and politically sensitive matter, arguing that the historical context involves international dimensions that require scrutiny.
Mabhena referenced the role of former Prime Minister, the late Robert Mugabe, during that time, who travelled to North Korea soon after independence to sign a military pact that led to the training of the Fifth Brigade.
“An international investigating body must be established to know what that agreement entailed, and how the training was conducted,” he said.
He added that Britain, which played a role in integrating the former liberation armies, ZPRA, ZANLA and the Rhodesian forces at independence, should also account for what it knew about developments at the time.
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