The ZPRA Veterans Association has called on Zimbabweans to dedicate 20 minutes on Unity Day to remember the 20,000 individuals killed during the Gukurahundi genocide and thousands who later died fighting for political causes.
On December 22, 1987, ZAPU President Joshua Nkomo and Zanu leader Robert Mugabe, who was the then state president, signed a peace deal to end Gukurahundi, which the former ZPRA fighters said came with several promissory terms of reference.
“Although this pact stopped Gukurahundi that started in 1982 where 20 000 people were killed and others severely wounded, it was a dark, unforgettable and regrettable time. To date many people stand wounded spiritually, economically, socially and otherwise,” said ZPRA Veterans Secretary General, Petros Sibanda.
Sibanda said the wounds of the victims remain not merely as scars but as those that itch for closure. “What is recorded officially and legacy history is a rough incomplete and biased foundation of our great nation. It is sad that we pretend to want, and are committed to building a happy country on a faulty foundation. It can’t,” the secretary general stated.
As a result, former ZPRA veterans, according to Sibanda, are issuing a clarion call to all Zimbabweans to reject such falsehoods and actively endeavour to unearth the true foundations of Zimbabwe, which were created by unified people.
“The liberation struggle was never founded on tribal or racial rootage. These were Capricorn Society’s evil seeds. We are suffering today because of this lie. On 22 December let us not celebrate the day but put on black to mourn part of murder, maiming and distortion of truth,” he said.
“For 20 minutes, ZPRA veterans appeal to all Zimbabweans, of good standing and will together with all fraternal forces, to observe a moment of silence in remembrance of the brutally departed.”
Sibanda added that after the moment of silence, citizens can declare their selfless commitment to building “a tribe race free Happy Zimbabwe.”
“Build a country that observes rule of law and independently running arms of State,” he said.
ZPRA Veterans Spokesperson, Buster Magwizi added that December 22 was a “dark day” to mourn the dying and passing of over 20 000 people during the early days of independence, rather than a day of unification.
“The unity that we are supposed to commemorate is of a horse and rider. It is a unity where people should be donning on black clothes to signify sorrow over the death of multitudes of people over the years since independence,” he said.
Magwizi stated that Gukurahundi saw the deaths of almost 20,000 individuals and thousands more who were displaced, and that these killings did not end there, as the State perpetrated more.
“What followed was the very ill-informed Murambatsvina that saw the destruction of lives, livelihoods and people in many urban centres,” said the ZPRA veterans spokesperson.
“This was then followed throughout the years by the disappearance of many people culminating in 2018 when people were shot in Harare by the military.”
Magwizi claimed that Zimbabwean politics had transformed civilians into horses that galloped to the tune of the rider, which was the State.
“The state has been taken over by the political movement that is driving the State to kill people. So the 22 December day is a commemoration of the death of many people in various political campaigns that took place since the Zimbabwean independence,” he said.
“We want people to stand at a secluded place quietly for 20 minutes to commemorate people who have passed on. This includes the 20 000 during Gukurahundi and the many others thousands who lost their lives and livelihoods, people who were killed for political reasons. These people died for sins they did not commit but for the sake of their country.”
According to the ZPRA veterans spokesperson, if people in the country took 20 minutes, they would have respected all those who had died.
“That is how we will commemorate this dark day,” Magwizi said.
