via Gukurahundi victims seeking South Africa’s help | SW Radio Africa by Mthulisi Mathuthu on Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Exiled victims of the Gukurahundi genocide have approached South African lawyers seeking help in their bid to compel the authorities there to investigate the 1980s massacres.
Representatives from the Patriotic Alliance of Mthwakazi Union (PAMU) said 40 people gave evidence before human rights lawyers in Johannesburg last week. SW Radio Africa heard that some lawyers were moved to tears as the victims gave their testimonies. PAMU said more people will give testimonies in the next few weeks.
Spokesman Cosmas Ncube told SW Radio Africa’s Cutting Edge programme that they want the South African government to investigate the episode which claimed lives of an estimated 20,000 people.
Ncube said: ‘We will soon be approaching the authorities here with evidence and if they don’t act on it we will go to court.’ He added: ‘Gukurahundi is Mugabe’s worst crime since 1980 and he together with his goons must be tried.’ Ncube said it was ‘disappointing’ that Gukurahundi was not being given the prominence which he said it deserves.
The Gukurahundi occurred in the mid 1980s and the victims were mainly supporters of Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU party. The North Korean trained Fifth Brigade, created outside the national army, led the atrocities under the pretext of flushing out dissidents in the Matabeleland and Midlands areas.
Mugabe has since ‘regretted’ the episode which he said was ‘a moment of madness’ but he has never apologized. In 2010 Genocide Watch, a US-based human rights group, said the Guhurahundi was officially an act of genocide and the perpetrators must be brought before the International Criminal Court.
Ncube said South African authorities must take advantage of this pronouncement and ‘move fast against the perpetrators before they die.’
PAMU is not the first group to try to get South Africa to take action against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
In 2008 the Southern African Litigation Center (SALC) and the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) approached the South African government asking them to investigate cases of torture against MDC members. After the South African authorities failed to act, the human rights groups then approached the High Court which ruled that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the country’s police must investigate state terrorism in Zimbabwe.
The NPA immediately appealed against the decision but in November last year the Supreme Court upheld the High Court decision. The Supreme Court said Pretoria had a duty to probe the allegations of human rights violations as required by the Rome Statute, which South Africa is a signatory to. The NPA has since appealed to the Constitutional Court as South Africa continues to resist taking any action against it’s neighbour.
The Rome Statute is the founding law of the International Criminal Court.
COMMENTS
Victims of apartheid, who are all over in Zimbabwe, victims of the Smith regime who still live and are in their millions, victims of farm slave labour, murder and harrassment by former white farmers should approach our courts to seek compensation. Let us see what the boers in South Africa who are sponsoring these false so called Gukurahundi victims will say about it. What of relations between Zimbabwe and South Africa? Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones
Do you deny what Mugabe himself termed “a moment of madness”? That you deny atrocities does not make them to not exist… it makes you a part of that evil. When the investigations begin, perhaps your name will be on the list. Many were duped into joining what they thought was a fight for independence… but those of the 5th Brigade can not hide behind claims of innocence… they knew fully what they were doing when they tortured, raped, and murdered. Remember that 70 years after the fact, German war criminals are still being hunted, found, prosecuted, and sentenced for their evil deeds seven decades ago. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
Nimrod you sound guilty of some involvement here.!!!!!
You know nothing. There was never any farm slave labourers. The fact remains that the average man in the street was 100% better off then than the average man in the street is now. How old are you? You are listening to a load of bull or you were part of it?
Shut up, fool gukurahundi denialist. I suppose the holocaust never happened as well? Go and dig a hole for yourself.
Nimrod, u r pathetic. It was Mugabe’s decision not to bring human rights violaters during the Smith era to book. Ever wondered why?
Go on and take the boers to court. What’s stopping you? You don’t have the right to stop gukurahundi victims from seeking justice.
Nimrod, a Shona gukurahundi assehoole!!
Wena Mthwakazi, don’t you know that during the Ndebele wars, the Ndebele people raided and killed the Shona? They also kidnapped people and stole cattle/ wealth so they should first (the Ndebele) be tried for murder, kidnap, theft. robbery and human rights violation. Ndebeles should know that Gukurahundi was a war activity and no kissing with the enemy in a war zone. Be tried first and pay compensation first you Ndebeles.
A Shona gukurahundi par excellence. Our biggest prize will be Bona, Chatunga and Robert jnr. No hiding place Shona gukurahundis.
We want to see whether as young as they are, it will be possible to provide state security to them for ever, until they are 90 years old like their father. We will get them to pay for the sins of their father – revenge!!
As long as this atrocity remains they way it is the International community must hang it’s head in shame. The African union has no relevance because they have avoided the subject. The ICC should also hang it’s head in shame because they turned their heads away from this crime. The EU must hang their head in shame for being arm twisted to allow a murderer to hold meetings on equal terms with them. Only China can hold their heads up high an say WE SUPPORT THIS. Only North Korea can say WE SUPPORTED THIS BECAUSE THIS IS OUR WAY OF LIFE.
Fight on .Hope the opposition is supporting this noble case. I hold my breath.
No sane person can deny that those who survived the genocide have a right to do whatever they can to get justice. Having your sister’s woumb cut wide open just because she speaks a particular language cannot be just brushed aside because apartheid Boers and Ian Smith murdered blacks. At least they never called all the villagers and then cut open the woumbs of their daughters as the villagers watched. That madness must be punished no matter when.
Mugabe’s atrocities against his own people were worse than what colonialists did to us. That’s beyond shameful.
To these ZANU PF gukurahundis, anyone who takes a stand against their evil deeds is being used, especially if one is Black; what exactly is wrong with you?
Gukurahundis should pay for their sins and pay they will. You think we can not see that that two-legged dark-skinned bespectacled gukurahundi creature you call a president is quacking in his boots. The gukurahundi is damn scared, that is why he will never step down – yes he will never step down.
Nothing embarrasses him anymore. That he is the oldest head of state at 90 on this planet says nothing to him. Nothing embarasses gukurahundis – nothing!!
Its as good as asking for help from zanu and Robert mugabe that s why he wont let go power Anc if south africans dont act soon and very soon it will be another ……..
Zanu and the master Bob. The courts are waiting for you all you murderers. You can not escape and you will not. PASI NE ZANU AND THE MURDERERS OF OUR PEOPLE.
Those ah bygones, its jus as gud as asking justice and compensation for ndebele-shona raids,haaa!
A Shona gukurahundi par excellence. Our biggest prize will be Bona, Chatunga and Robert jnr. No hiding place Shona gukurahundis.
We want to see whether as young as they are, it will be possible to provide state security to them for ever, until they are 90 years old like their father. We will get them to pay for the sins of their father – revenge!!
I wouldn’t expect much help from the ANC government. They had a little “gukurahundi” of their own during the war against apartheid, ANC terrorists murdered 40,000 Zulu members of the Inkatha Freedom Party that were fighting the same apartheid. Its their “dirty little secret” that they want to keep swept under the rug.
sweet dreams comrades, sweet dreams
Rubbish – there has never been a gukurahundi in South Africa.
Which gukurahundi army made up of people of one tribe, speaking the same language was ever formed in South Africa?
There has never been such a thing. Mzansi is not the Gukurahundi Republic!!
It’s a pity the South African Government does not act on Mugabe on anything besides endorcing rigged elections
The only case of farm slave labour was after Independence when the Guta Re Jehova people were enslaved and put to work as forced labour on ZANU farms. Manicaland 1981/2
Keep on dreaming, no trial maboss. In Shona Hundi means trash or unwanted element, so during a war situation the enemy is unwanted and should be cleared. It is unfortunate that they won’t come back thereafter to learn their mistakes. Accept it, in war people kill each other both innocent and guilty. Once again read history of Zimbabwe and you will find the atrocities perpetrated to the Shonas by the Ndebeles. Let sleeping dogs lie. You are not south Africans.
A Shona gukurahundi par excellence. Our biggest prize will be Bona, Chatunga and Robert jnr. No hiding place Shona gukurahundis.
We want to see whether as young as they are, it will be possible to provide state security to them for ever, until they are 90 years old like their father. We will get them to pay for the sins of their father – revenge!!
Manu you are obviously a revenge oriented person. What happened in the medieval times happened. We can not dwell on what these warlike people done. Robert Mugabe done this in a civilized world and got away with it. Lobenghula and the people of his time did not have phones, tv or media. You are foolish to compare the situations, but maybe you can tell Lobenghula your thoughts on line?
die groot wyt aap.
ANC terrorists murdered 40,000 Zulu members of the Inkatha Freedom Party that were fighting the same apartheid.
Firstly,where was this huge number of people residing, Secondly,The IFP was the one colliding with the NP to try a stall the new dispensation of Democracy in SA. Thirdly, ZUMA is both president of the ANC or SA and ZULU speaking. I don’t deny the fact that people were killed by the ANC but mostly it was in response to APART-HEID’s night abductions and disappearances 40 000 is far too much for even all people that were killed by IFP,ANC and APARTHEID gov.
Don’t fool Zimbabweans into thinking that Gukurahundi must be laid to rest. They need their version of the Truth and Reconciliation commission to get both the perpetraters and Victims to come together to tell the truth and the guilty ones punished accordingly.
Juju to the Rescue:
Why do all these so-called human rights cases only seem to apply to Africans’ ‘sins’. There seems to be a racist application of principles funded by the perpetrators of the injustices of yesteryear who want to create a new thinking that makes them Africa’s new saviours. New words and new thinking is created to Africa’s disavantage while the real historical human rights abusers continue with their cruel ways by targeting new peoples and beliefs.
The Gukurahundi Rebellion: This can be viewed in one of 3 ways:
1. Either the complaninants are Zimbabweans seeking redress- in a foreign court through a foreign power- which is impossible to enforce at law. The foreign country would have to invade their own country to enforce any negative judgement- a treasonous act on their part.
2. Or they are non-Zimbabweans ie South africans, children of Muzirikazi and Ruvengura; who are back in their home country and are seeking redress from their mother nation for acts committed against them in Zim. The difficult Questions- what did they want in zim in the first place. Why were they fighting and/or supporting those fighting the Zim govt?
3. If they are true Zimbos, then their grievances are best solved in Zim by fellow Zimbos.
4. The Hard Questions for ‘Liberated’ South Africa: It is time South Africa changes some of these surrender clauses in their constitution that threatens to make friends into enemies and enemies into false friends. Juju may turn out to be their political salvation.
Food for Thought! Cooling Water for Thirsty Minds!
Ndebvu
A Shona gukurahundi par excellence. Our biggest prize will be Bona, Chatunga and Robert jnr. No hiding place Shona gukurahundis.
We want to see whether as young as they are, it will be possible to provide state security to them for ever, until they are 90 years old like their father. We will get them to pay for the sins of their father – revenge!!
Proudly South African,
nak boet, don’t misunderstand me. For as long as I am alive GUKURAHUNDI WILL NEVER BE LAID TO REST. Those are MY PEOPLE in those graves. But I know better than to ever trust ANC for help. Do you not remember your comrade Mbeki and his “quiet diplomacy” (silent approval).
Maki Skosana, will trust or ask ANC for help before me.
slaap lekker comrade, slaap lekker