via ‘Nkomo honours won’t heal wounds of Matabeleland’ – The Zimbabwe Independent January 17, 2014 by Paidamoyo Muzulu
HONOURING the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo by erecting a statue to his memory and renaming Bulawayo Airport as the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo (JMN) International Airport may go a long way in appeasing the Matabeleland provinces bitter over marginalisation, but government has to do more to pacify people in that region.
President Robert Mugabe chose Unity Day (December 22) to honour Nkomo, affectionately referred to as Father Zimbabwe or Umdala Wethu, more than a decade after his death by unveiling Nkomo’s giant statue, renaming Main Street after him and officially opening the refurbished JMN International Airport in Bulawayo.
On Unity Day, which is a public holiday, Zimbabwe commemorates the signing of the unity agreement between Nkomo’s PF-Zapu and Mugabe’s Zanu PF, which ended six years of brutal state-sponsored violence in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands dubbed Gukurahundi during which about 20 000 people were reportedly killed. The government deployed North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade to that region to fight dissidents.
In his speech, Mugabe spoke about unity in the country and described Nkomo as a unifier and father figure to nationalism in Zimbabwe. He passionately implored breakaway former PF-Zapu members, led by Dumiso Dabengwa, to rejoin Zanu PF.
Since his landslide victory in the July 31 polls, Mugabe has been working on restoring his legacy as a national leader. To that end, he has been courting the hand of the breakaway PF-Zapu leadership.
However, analysts say real peace building goes beyond the erection of statues and renaming roads after leaders. They argue the people in the province still need truth, healing and justice.
“Peace-building normally begins from a premise of understanding and accepting the true record of what transpired and then beyond that someone should take responsibility for what transpired,” South Africa-based political analyst Trevor Maisiri said. “From thereon all downstream processes become not only easier, but sustainable as well.”
He added that the mere giving of positions to Ndebele people (from Matabeleland) was not enough to build peace without bringing economic development to the region.
“I don’t think it is about giving Ndebeles nominal positions in government, but it should also be about addressing the broader issues of the Matabeleland region,” Maisiri said. “For example, it is clear that the issue of devolution of power was a key issue from the region, but how it has been underplayed, despite there being some constitutional provisions for it, is further disappointment for the region.”
Rashweat Mukundu, another political analyst, concurred saying erecting statues without dealing with the 1980s violence in the Midlands and Matabeleland was not enough.
Mukundu said: “The honour granted to Nkomo must go hand-in-hand with government actions to correct mistakes of the past so that the society can move forward outside anger, frustration and suspicion.”
Besides Mugabe’s utterance at Nkomo’s burial that it was “a moment of madness” Zanu PF has not formally or publicly apologised to the people of the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces for the Gukurahundi atrocities.
The state has also legally barred the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) from investigating any atrocities committed by the state before February 2009.
The ZHRC Act passed in 2012 after acrimonious debates in parliament, was a political compromise that left many people from the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces livid for they argued it did not guarantee justice to victims of Gukurahundi.
Maisiri said the silence about that dark historical period is problematic.
“I think the challenge is that there is no consensus on the issues that transpired in Matabeleland as accounts are at times at variance and responsibility and accountability are not ascertained and accepted. That, in my view, is the first issue in terms of sustainably resolving peace in the Matabeleland region.”
The Gukurahundi issue remains an emotive issue judging by the emotions evoked during debate on the issue in parliament in 2012.
Legislators from Matabeleland provinces, including Tabitha Khumalo and Felix Magagela Mafa, said may people were still nursing the scars from the “dark age”.
The parliamentarians argued that there were thousands of people who did not have identity particulars after their parents were killed during Gukurahundi. Several hundreds were left maimed for life and villages were razed to the ground leaving thousands destitute.
Some have argued that true peace and healing can only occur in Matabeleland when government formally apologises and helps bring economic development to the region.
COMMENTS
They did not stop with Gukurahundi only but they went on to destroy all industries in Bulawayo to persecute future generations in this part of the country.This is real cruelty at its highest level.
My take on the honours bestowed on JMN:
1. Appeasement of Ndebeles: This does not apply becoz JMN never viewed himself in the tribalist mould of representing Ndebeles only. He was national leader and the honours are given to him as a nationalist not as a reward to his tribe. All Zimbos have a right to appropriate and bask with the pride for the honors given to him equally, which is what he would have wanted. These other views try to monopolise him or reduce him to a village hero – this tends to cheapen his contribution.
2. Calling the ZPF Prodigals: RGM, like any father with estranged children, was addressing individuals who left ZPF, including but not limited to Dabengwa and his Zapu party. Some of these prodigals have tried to chart new political directions but have found, to their great embarassment, that their followers are too few to rock the democratic boat- leaving ZPF in sole charge. RGM may be feeling sorry for the prodigals who faced such humiliation at the polls- and is thus calling them home to save them from further humiliation.
3. Ndebeles in Govt: A very strange statement this one. Are Ndebeles not Zimbos. All this time I thought they were full Zimobs-citizens with no other country to call home but the suggestion here is that they are a special breed who should not be given nominal positions in govt. So what should they be given and which tribe or section of Zimbos should be given these nominal positions? Let us learn to see Zimbabweans and Zimbabwe as one- this hair-splitting division does not build a nation and could lead to rebellion and we as a nations know where this can lead- divisions, suspicions and self-destruction.
4. Moment of Madness: Rebellions the world over have only been put down through brute force. It is the only way to maintain a legitimate govt. It is the rebels who had a ‘moment of madness’ to think they could use the force of arms to remove the govt of the day. They should apologise to all peace-loving Zimbos about their actions. All Zimbos must condemn their actions in the strongest terms in order to discourage anyone else from following the same disastrous route.
Conclusion: JMN was hounoured and will continue to be honoured as a Zimbabwean who worked for all Zimbos, the fact that he was Ndebele is a coicidence. He worked for all Zimbos and loved all Zimbos- it is not right to use his rich history to make him out as a tribalist.