MTHWAKAZI Republic Party (MRP) says the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission is an appendage of Zanu PF and does not have the capacity to handle the emotive Gukurahundi issue.
The militant party was reacting to reports that the commission is set to embark on community outreach programmes in communities that were affected by the 1980s atrocities.
The outreach programmes are expected to start at the end of March.
In an interview with CITE, an exasperated MRP president, Mqondisi Moyo claimed NPRC was not qualified to continue engaging people in Matabeleland on the genocide.
“As MRP we will mobilise people to disrupt these hearings, the commission is an arm of Zanu PF government led by Emmerson Mnangagwa who masterminded the butchering, raping and maiming of our people,” he said.
Moyo argued that the sensitive issue is best handled by an independent international commission.
“If (President) Mnangagwa could appoint an international commission for the August 1, 2018 killings of six people in Harare which was led by former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe what is stopping him from setting an independent body for the genocide he presided over? Mnangagwa cannot shed crocodile tears on the killings of our people he masterminded,” he claimed.
Outspoken Filabusi Chief Vezi Maduna Mafu recently lobbied the United Nations to set up an independent commission of inquiry to investigate atrocities which occurred in Matabeleland and Midlands.
Moyo also expressed shock at the destruction of a memorial plaque which was erected at Bhalage in memory of the victims of the genocide.
“Working together with Ibhetshu Likazulu, we had erected a plague for the Genocide memories but the government of President Mnangangwa saw it fit to send its hooligans and thugs to destroy it. We are prepared to lay our lives for the Mthwakazi cause and the genocide issue,” he said.
When the NPRC was established under the provision of the constitution, it was well received in many quarters but not equally so in Matabeleland as some human rights activists refused to recognise it on the basis of its composition.
The activists felt that the commission would be biased in its operations since it only had one commissioner who comes from the affected region.
As a result, activists disrupted the NPRC’s inaugural national consultation meetings in Matabeleland last year.
