‘Matemadanda must shut up on Gukurahundi’ 

Source: ‘Matemadanda must shut up on Gukurahundi’ – NewsDay Zimbabwe May 31, 2018

EX-ZPRA cadre, Jabulani Petshu Sibanda has blasted Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) secretary-general, Victor Matemadanda for claiming that former President Robert Mugabe was solely responsible for the Gukurahundi massacres.

BY SILAS NKALA

Sibanda, a former Zanu PF Matabeleland South provincial secretary for lands, who resigned from the party during Mugabe’s rule when former Vice-President Joice Mujuru and others were hounded out of the Zanu PF last year, said it was not true that Mugabe unleashed the Fifth Brigade as an individual.

“Matemadanda said these things must be said while Mugabe is alive so that he pays, but we do not agree that the compensation must be done using his assets. He was a Prime Minister then and represented a Zanu PF government. The compensation must be done by the government,” he said.

“Matemadanda is not the right person to apportion blame on Mugabe and exonerate others who worked with him. Those who worked under Mugabe’s instruction, some of them are still there, they are the ones who must come out and tell us who sent them. Mugabe never set foot in Matabeleland carrying an AK47 to kill people, there are people who were sent and those people are the ones who must come out and say they were sent by Mugabe.”

Sibanda said with less than 200 dissidents reported to be in the region, there was no justification for the massacres.

Matemadanda, while addressing war veterans at an outreach programme at Stanley Square in Bulawayo last week, said Mugabe was solely responsible for the post-independence civil disturbances known as Gukurahundi and his properties must be seized and sold to compensate victims of the massacres.

He said Mugabe made an individual decision as a Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces to unleash violence against people in Matabeleland and Midlands, who were believed to be supporters of PF Zapu and ZPRA.