By Ndumiso Tshuma
The launch of opposition politician Job Sikhala’s memoir Footprints in the Chains in Bulawayo on Friday became a platform for calls for truth, justice, and national healing over decades of political violence in Zimbabwe, particularly the Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland.
The event drew politicians, civic leaders, and activists, with speakers openly criticising both past and current governments for failing to reckon with the country’s violent legacy.
Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart, delivering a candid reflection, acknowledged the complicity of Zimbabwe’s former white minority in laying the legal and political groundwork for the repression seen in the country today.
“As I reflect on our nation’s history, I recognise that much of the abuse inflicted on Job Sikhala and others stems from systems created by the white community,” said Coltart. “The Law and Order Maintenance Act, media restrictions, all of these were tools of control crafted in the colonial era that remain embedded in today’s governance.”
Coltart said the enduring legacy of those systems had “poisoned” Zimbabwe, and urged white Zimbabweans to take responsibility for that history.
Meanwhile, activist and facilitator Nkomo focused on the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s, in which an estimated 20,000 people, mostly ethnic Ndebele, were killed in a military crackdown.
“Our political parties have failed to hold ZANU PF accountable for Gukurahundi,” he said. “We still don’t know what happened to thousands who disappeared. Chiefs were used then, as they are now, to push government agendas and silence the victims.”
Nkomo condemned current efforts by traditional leaders to encourage forgiveness without truth-telling or justice, calling it a continuation of impunity.
“How are our mothers supposed to forgive when they were raped, when their children were buried in mass graves, and when those responsible still sit in government?” he asked. “Some children live with fake birth certificates because their fathers were disappeared. The trauma is intergenerational.”
Sikhala, who recently spent over 500 days in pre-trial detention, echoed the call for truth and justice.
“Forty-five years later, the people of Matabeleland still want to know why they were massacred,” he said. “Justice has never been served. We must confront our past if we are to build a democratic future.”
He pledged that in a free Zimbabwe, new national holidays would be declared to commemorate victims, including 3 January, which he said would mark the beginning of the Gukurahundi killings.
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