Government must address Gukurahundi issues- MP

Chitungwiza North MP Godfrey Sithole for MDC-T has said the government particularly of the ruling Zanu PF has a duty to address the issue of the Gukurahundi which has continued to haunt the nation since then to date.

Speaking in parliament Sithole said the first thing that he would want to talk about is to have an issue to do with peace and reconciliation which should be spearheaded by the government.

"In that regard, I would want to see a scenario whereby we do not, as a government try to sweep hot issues under the carpet. By that I mean we have burning issues which Government tries to ignore," Sithole said. "I will cite those issues that took place between the 1983-1987 period. Matabeleland and Midlands experienced Gukurahundi and the President (Robert MUgabe) is on record saying that it was a moment of madness. Those issues should be addressed by Government. If it does not have money for compensation, at least it should apologise to the people of Midlands and Matabeleland."

He said it is not only that, but people also have issues to deal with what happened after the 31st March, 2008 elections.

"There was a lot of political violence; issues to do with short and long sleeves. Most people were killed during that time and we have to address those issues.    That would help to make our country a peaceful nation. If the country is very peaceful that will also attract investors," Sithole said.

 "We also have issues to do with the disappearance of people in our country. Edison Sithole, my relative, disappeared along the street behind Parliament. Up to now people do not know where he is. We also have Itai Dzamara. The issue of Itai Dzamara, is our appeal that government takes measures to ensure that police do sufficient investigations to make certain that we find him."

Sithole said then on the political scene, there are issues to do with the electoral reforms.

"Any government that comes into place has to come without controversy. We need electoral reforms that actually guarantee voter confidence and confidence of the vote. The other issue that we would want to see regarding the Presidential Speech, is the issue to do with the contract which is there between the voters and the government of the day," he said. "The voters put the government in power. They actually give government two things; power and money through taxation but we would not want a government that pursues vulgar priorities, where we see Senior  government Officials – when we do not have money; for example, recently the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development failed to pay bonuses on time because government said it did not have money."

He said however,he  personally, do not believe government does not have money to pay bonuses because during the year which is currently under review, 2015, there were Presidential trips which amounted to more than US$150 million  yet the wage bill for bonuses is only US$120 million.

"The other issue that we would also want to see dealt with is the harmonization of various Acts of Parliament to the Constitution. If you read Section 90 of the Constitution well, it talks about the duties of the President and one of the duties which is mentioned there is to promote unity and Section 90 (2) (d) talks about the President accepting the diversity of the people. This should be adhered to Mr. Speaker, because we cannot have a scenario where the First Lady, Dr Amai, distributes Government inputs at party political rallies. - [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear] -   That is actually in contravention of the Constitution," he said.

"The other issue that we should be looking at is trying to revive the industry. The President spoke at length on the issue to do with our economic revival and in my own opinion; I think this can only be done through encouraging Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We cannot talk about FDI without talking about our diaspora citizens. If we demand diaspora remittances we should also demand diaspora votes. Those two things should go hand in hand."