Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister, Judith Ncube, claims President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s efforts at resolving the Gukurahundi genocide are finally bearing fruit with the launch of the consultative process led by chiefs.
Ncube said this at the Bulawayo State House on Monday before President Mnangagwa, who was launching the start of the chiefs’ consultative and engagement process in communities affected by the Gukurahundi genocide.
In 2021, the president assigned chiefs the arduous task of resolving Gukurahundi in their respective communities.
“This event is a culmination of enormous collective efforts and engagements, which have been going on time and again to address the issue. The launch today shows that the discussions which have been going on over the past years are beginning to bear fruit in order to restore the dignity of victims and to promote reconciliation hence the need for peacebuilding based upon truth-telling,” said Ncube.
Ncube said truth-telling must be promoted by the government on a national basis.
“Truth-telling needs to take place at the national level supported by the state, Your Excellency in March 2019 you agreed to meet with the representatives of the Matabeleland Collective consortium of the regional civil society organisations and I would like to thank you for that decision you broadly made a decision that has borne some fruits hence our gathering here today,” said the provincial minister.
“During the meeting, you appealed to the people of Zimbabwe to talk freely about the massacres. Let’s open debate so as not to fear anything.”
The provincial minister also said the documentation efforts made by Mnangagwa will promote healing and reconciliation along the way.
“Your excellency your government also resorted to exhume and rebury victims in order to give them a decent burial, provide counselling and medical services and issue documents to displace the survivors. The launch of the Gukurahundi documentation exercise here today will unpack a wide range of factors which will promote healing and reconciliation along the way,” Ncube said.
“Let me express our most sincere wish that the agreements reached here will address and unpack issues emanating from the Gukurahundi era, and strongly believe that each one of us to the extent of his and her involvement will do everything possible to achieve that end. It is my hope that we shall follow the path of healing and reconciliation as one nation.”
National Chiefs Council president, Senator Fortune Charumbira, who was also at the meeting, heaped praises on Mnangagwa for declaring that Gukurahundi is openly discussed.
“We are on a critical path along the objective to realise what you courageously declared in 2019 that the issue of Gukurahundi needs to be openly discussed. Even today people still feel that the president was bold. Openly discussing Gukurahundi was not envisaged by the generality of Zimbabweans. We thank you for being bold and courageous to ensure that we bring closure to those issues in our society that subvert development because of conflicts or perceptions of conflict among Zimbabweans,” he said.
