Gukurahundi - Compensation needed

WM: The Catholic Church has over the years issued pastoral letters commenting on the social, economic and political situation in the country. What do you think about President Mugabe's leadership of the country?

The church has been consistent (on issuing pastoral letters). So even after 1980, there are certain events that took place that the church has not been silent; we had the disturbances in Matabeleland and Midlands, the church made a comment and I think it was a pastoral letter that opened eyes of the people really that something wrong was happening, the nation needed to address it and I think the President, am sure he was also grateful. I don't think he knew everything that was happening but the church helped him even to understand what was happening on the ground. Even before ... the church had already warned about inequality when it comes to land ownership ... So the church is not against what happened therefore in terms of land reform but the way it was done. The end does not justify the means, you don't kill so you can repossess what you believe is yours and in some cases some of the people who suffered were innocent people.

You also talked about Gukurahundi, what went wrong in Matabeleland and how can this be addressed?

It was just after independence and maybe we failed to find each other as it were, you know as a new nation and you know it is always easy to exploit ethnic differences sometimes and blame everything on ethnicity but I think we failed to find each other after independence really...It's a pity that so many people lost their lives but I said if there are some genuine grievances that have to be addressed, I will be for that myself.

How can that be addressed?

A question of compensation has to be done. People who lost breadwinners mind you, how could these people be helped to rebuild their lives, I think that for me would be more practical.

And how can we address national healing...?

I more inclined to talk about a truth and reconciliation commission. Let people pour out their hearts about what they went through, what happened. If really during the process it is found that there are people who have to answer for their deeds, then it doesn't become a question of revenge but a question of justice: that is how I see it. But at the moment sometimes you feel that people are talking about revenge, I think it has to be a question of justice...

Well, I don't know who has to make us ready for elections. I think we ourselves have to make ourselves ready for elections. There are still skirmishes here and there that are starting to happen, which in my opinion is really sad, I must say. It's a lack of maturity on our part, but that said if there is goodwill on all the political parties, I think we can have elections.

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