CIVIL society groups in Bulawayo have urged opposition Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) leader, Joice Mujuru, to cancel her planned tour of Gukurahundi victims’ graves, saying the visit could trigger a backlash from the victims’ surviving families, who believe her concerns were not genuine.
Source: Mujuru faces Gukurahundi graves visit backlash – NewsDay Zimbabwe September 15, 2016
By SHARON SIBINDI/SILAS NKALA
Mujuru, at the weekend, told her supporters at a rally in Gwanda that she was planning to visit mass graves of Gukurahundi victims, particularly Balagwe in Maphisa, Matabeleland South province.
The atrocities, which claimed an estimated 20 000 people in Midlands and Matabeleland regions in the 1980s, were sanctioned by President Robert Mugabe’s administration under the guise of crushing ex-Zapu dissidents.
Mujuru was one of Mugabe’s ministers then.
Zenzo Nyoni of the Education and Unemployed Youth Forum of Zimbabwe, yesterday said Mujuru’s new-found concerns over the Gukurahundi massacres smacked of hypocrisy.
“It’s interesting that Mujuru has never condemned Gukurahundi till now that she has been fired from Zanu PF. We wonder what her agenda is,” he said.
“So whatever her agenda is, may she leave the people of Matabeleland and the Gukurahundi victims in peace. We are still in a healing process.”
Busani Sibindi, of Save Matabeleland Coalition, said Gukurahundi was an emotional issue, which should not be used as political capital whenever elections draw near.
“We have observed with utter disbelief the kind of hypocrisy that has been going around in regard to the Gukurahundi genocide,” he said.
“We have countless times heard and seen our killers making a mockery of the horrors they perpetrated. We have heard people issue statements that not only add salt to the wounds, but re-open the wounds and add on new ones. Our lives on this earth have been a walk in the valley of the shadow of graves.”
Sibindi said Zimbabwean politicians have trivialised the pain and suffering to the extent that they called mass murder “a moment of madness”.
“We have watched in dismay as politicians of all hues use this region as their spring board,” he continues.
“They have walked the lands of our beloved region setting themselves a political future at the expense of our very existence. This planned visit to Gukurahundi graves by Mujuru is part of that oriental approach to Matabeleland; she wants to see the mass graves as if she is shocked that they even exist.
“Was she not the Vice-President of the Republic of Zimbabwe when then National Healing and Reconciliation minister Moses Mzila Ndlovu was arrested by junior police officers for visiting the same graves?”
Mthwakazi Liberation Front spokesperson, Ndabezinhle Fuyane, also expressed concern over Mujuru’s planned tour of the Gukurahundi sites.
“She may regret her visit for the rest of her life, if she is not careful,” he said.
“She is just a Zanu PF prodigal daughter, who cannot measure the gravity of the pains endured during the era.”
But ZimPF spokesperson, Methuseli Moyo, said, as much as civil society groups’ concerns were understandable, “stopping Mujuru or anyone from going there will only dramatise and not solve the problem”.
“Gukurahundi must be solved by the next government and we believe that ZimPF will lead the next government,” he said.
“Our party is determined to face the truth, no matter how unpalatable, and come up with a comprehensive reconciliation programme. The civic organisations must be careful not to push the Zanu PF agenda of not wanting to talk about Gukurahundi.
“Importantly, it is not true that everybody who was in Zanu PF supported Gukurahundi. Mugabe is behind everything that has happened and continues to happen in this country.”
COMMENTS
Suddenly she cares. How amazing. How hypocritical. How nauseating. She was proud of it until they kicked her out of ZANU-PF. She still owns it, whether it fits her agenda or not. Gukurahundi is an Albatross around the neck of every ZANU-PF supporter until the last one of them is dead and rotted.
The words “Mujuru” and “integrity” don’t belong in the same sentence.
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Mujuru should not visit the graves should take peoples word.
These Ndebele people are just difficult for nothing so they mean if any shona speaking president comes in office and say lets re visit these issues they will still refuse they must know that its not every shona speaking who hurt ndebeles i think we are one;but only those with stupid minds always want to divide the country i dont see any problem with Mai Mujuru going there
Chims where are you coming from with such a strange thought process.
The Ndebele people were the victims of a massive, cruel and bloody massacre planned and executed by Zanu PF, of which Mai Majuru was then a senior office bearer…no not a senior office bearer, but to be exact, a very very senior office bearer.
There is no record of her taking any steps, then or later, to prevent the massacre, or even offer comfort or care to the survivors or the relatives of the many dead.
It then stands to reason that Mai Majuru must stay away from our family graves until full atonement has been made by all who led Zanu PF at that time.
Don’t bring out that old stupid argument about Shona/ Ndebele differences to make your case. There has been enough of that nonsense in the past. Whether you like it or not, we are all Zimbabwe’s children.