Zanu-PF on the wrong side of history in Matabeleland

Zanu-PF is on the wrong side of history, as other political parties are feasting on it to gain support in the Matabeleland region.

Most of the constituencies in Matabeleland North and South and Bulawayo provinces are under the control of MDC-T and MDC-N, while the revived Zapu is trying to cash in on Zanu-PF's unpopularity because of the Gukurahundi atroci-ties of the '80s that left more than 20000 either dead or missing.

Over the past two months, the Gukurahundi issue has come back to haunt Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. It has sparked a heated debate in political circles, with opposition politicians saying that Zanu-PF should own up to the violent crackdown that analysts say gave birth to the underdevelopment of the southern part of the country.

Zanu-PF officials who have spoken on the issue in recent weeks have only added salt to the wounds.

Defence Minister and Zanu-PF politburo member Emmerson Mnangagwa sparked the controversy recently when he said the issue was a closed chapter. He was heavily criticised from all quarters.

Opposition politicians responded with anger, saying the people of Matabeleland were still hurting.

Zapu had its say on the matter: "Even though we did not go to school that much because we were deprived of our privileges, we do not want to be provoked. I believe they know what we are capable of doing if we are provoked beyond resistance. So, we ask not to be provoked," said Zapu's national security boss Ekam Nkala.

MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said the Gukurahundi issue should be laid to rest only if it is addressed as a matter of urgency and victims and their families are compensated. "It was gross human rights violations. Many innocent people died and some are still traumatised. For the development of Zimbabwe it should be addressed."

Welshman Ncube's MDC-N shared the same view. "A lot of things are not right because of Gukurahundi. Other than lives lost there are memories still lingering. Gukurahundi should be dealt with," said spokesman Nhlanhla Dube.

In Joburg last week, a memorial service was held for the massacre's victims organised by the Gukurahundi Genocide Victims for Justice. The call by political parties and civic groups for the issue to be addressed will cast Zanu-PF in a bad light because the party actually perpetrated the atrocities.

If discussed in a public forum, people will learn how their relatives were killed or disappeared.

Within Zanu-PF, there have been increasing calls for the issue to be addressed, the highest-pitched voice being that of politburo member and former information minister Professor Jonathan Moyo.

Moyo is the MP for Tsholotsho North, one of the regions seriously affected by the atrocities.

However, Moyo's opinion, published in the state-run weekly The Sunday Mail, warned that the issue was being used against his party and only Zanu-PF could bring the matter to a close.

"The Gukurahundi issue is not a closed chapter. But calls from some destructive quarters for a fresh probe are as irresponsible and unacceptable as the claims from our own ranks that the matter is now a closed chapter, whose discussion will open old wounds," he said.

"(Gukurahundi) was a dark point in our history ... which not only involved dissidents who committed atrocities and wantonly destroyed property but also the State, whose response to the dissident menace was so outrageously disproportionate as to cause unnecessary suffering among ordinary people which could have been avoided."