The Bulawayo High Court has dismissed an urgent application by the opposition party ZAPU seeking to stop the government-initiated Gukurahundi Outreach Programme in Matabeleland, ruling that the matter was not urgent.

The hearings, which were meant to start on 26 June, are part of a long-delayed national effort to address the atrocities committed in the 1980s, during which thousands were killed in a military crackdown in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions.

ZAPU had argued that the process, led by traditional chiefs under the National Council of Chiefs, lacked legal legitimacy and impartiality. However, High Court Judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi dismissed the application.

“The case has been dismissed. The judge said the matter was not urgent,” ZAPU legal advisor Vuyo Mpofu told journalists. “He argued that since 2019, we knew that the President and the Matabeleland Collective had come together and that this was the agreed approach, but we didn’t act at the time.”

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Minister of Local Government, and the National Council of Chiefs were among the respondents cited in the case, which was filed over the weekend.

In the court papers, ZAPU president Sibangilizwe Nkomo challenged the legality of the outreach programme, arguing that traditional leaders should not be tasked with leading a national process of such sensitivity.

“The Chiefs are unlikely to be impartial and unbiased in the conduct of the process,” Nkomo argued in the affidavit.

“We believe the agreement between the President and the Matabeleland Collective has no legal foundation and does not represent the victims of Gukurahundi.”

ZAPU president Sibangilizwe Nkomo addressing journalists outside the Bulawayo High Court

Outside the court, Nkomo said his party would continue to seek justice for victims of the Gukurahundi atrocities.

“It did not matter that we didn’t get what we set out to achieve, stopping the hearings but we will continue finding other ways to bring this matter to closure,” he said.

“We want justice for people who were killed, women who were raped. As a peace-loving organisation, we seek an amicable resolution.”

Tensions were high at the court, with police deployed to monitor the proceedings.

Nkomo was briefly prevented by police from addressing the media near the court premises.

The outreach hearings, originally scheduled to begin on 26 June, were delayed amid confusion.

Chief Mtshane Khumalo, President of the National Council of Chiefs, told CITE that the process was disrupted by another official event attended by President Mnangagwa in Bulawayo on the same day. Some local chiefs also reported they had not yet received the necessary resources to begin the hearings.