Unity Accord dead, says ex-chief Ndiweni

Source: Unity Accord dead, says ex-chief Ndiweni – NewsDay Zimbabwe

BY SILAS NKALA

DETHRONED Ntabazinduna Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni has said President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration effectively dumped the 1987 Unity Accord by not appointing a Zapu side Vice-President.

The Unity Accord was signed between then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF and Joshua Nkomo of Zapu, who became Mubage’s vice-president afterwards, to end the violence.

Currently, government has one Vice-President after Kembo Mohadi unceremoniously resigned last year, but remained a second Zanu PF party vice-president.

“The Unity Accord was broken by Zanu PF. Zanu PF kept the name Zanu PF and removed Zapu from positions within the government of the day. The current President Mnangagwa has refused to give Zapu the Vice-President position, an act that speaks volumes that, indeed, the Unity Accord is dead,” Ndiweni said.

He also complained that the manner and descriptions given to Gukurahundi by the Zanu PF government since Mugabe’s time show that the perpetrators are belittling the killings.

Between 1983 and 1987, the Zanu PF government unleashed the North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade Regiment in Matabeleland and Midlands to stem what it termed a dissident menace.

Over 20 000 unarmed civilians including men, women, children and unborn children, were killed.

Thousands of women and girls were reportedly raped, thousands more were injured and nearly a million were displaced.

The Unity Accord silenced the guns of genocide in 1987.

Ndiweni said the Zanu PF government sought to destroy evidence by blocking exhumation of victims.

Ndiweni noted that justice was needed to resolve Gukurahundi, adding that the criminals would get away with murder in the absence of a judicial process.

His remarks come at a time when Mnangagwa had tasked chiefs to deal with the emotive issue.