News / Regional
Zanu-PF dumps Chimoio bones in Njelele shrine
13 Mar 2012 at 07:20hrs | Views
MORE than 600 people descended on one of the sacred shrines in the Matabeleland region, Njelele recently where a re-burial and bad luck cleansing ceremony was carried out by suspected Zanu-PF supporters who claimed to be appeasing spirits of their colleagues who were shot and killed in the Chimoio area of Mozambique during the war of liberation.
According to sources that witnessed the proceedings, the traveling party of 600 allegedly stripped naked and desecrated the Njelele shrine, with a traditional healer from Mozambique, known as Nzete, who was lavishly paid to conduct the ritual.
The sources said the delegation, claiming to be composed of ex-Zanla ex-combatants, earlier on went to Chimoi in Mozambique were they exhumed remains of their colleagues who were killed during the liberation struggle.
They also took stones that were laid on their supposed colleagues' graves and transported these collections to Njelele shrine in the Matobo area both area for a secret re-burial ceremony.
It is alleged the ceremony and its arrangements was done at the behest of some senior Zanu PF party associates and members.
The move, it is alleged, has torched off a storm within the Zanu PF party as some radicals in the party believe this is a slap in the face of the regional leadership that has been dormant and docile for some time owing to lack of public support from people in the region.
Traditionalists also weighed in this week with criticism as the news filtered that such a ceremony was held, with most of them arguing the move could have telling effects on the region.
Most of them said there was bound to be starvation, drought, and hunger in the Matabeleland region if traditional ceremonies were not conducted to appease the Njelele spirit mediums.
Month long investigations by this paper, whose findings have been confirmed by senior Zanu PF, Movement for Democratic Change formations and the Dumiso Dabengwa led ZAPU â€" are to the effect that the group of war veterans did their cleansing ceremony without the knowledge and or consent of the local leadership in Matobo North and the Matabeleland region as a whole.
Sources spoken to say the war veterans who led the cleansing ceremony told locals in the Matobo area as well as those manning the Njelele shrine that they had been granted "authority from above" and got clearance from Chief Mbiko Mzimuni Masuku, who heads the area.
The group, numbering more than 600 men and women was ferried to and from Mozambique using 16 buses and more than 6 cars hired by unknown elements in Zanu PF.
A spirit medium identified as Nzete from Mozambique allegedly led the exhumation exercise in Chimoio, guiding the group all the way to Njelele where the secret burial was conducted.
Our sources said Nzete was paid handsomely to do lead the traditional ceremony.
At Njelele, the group is reported to have caused a stir as it sang and toyi-toyid in a typical guerilla format while singing Zanla liberation songs. They burnt traditional herbs and went on to conduct a secret cleansing ritual at Ovi River.
The matter reportedly came to light during a Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund (DIMAF) meeting at Elangeni Training Centre in Bulawayo last Sunday.
Sources that attended the meeting said Vice President John Nkomo told leaders from the Matabeleland Action Group- a grouping that brings together top Zanu PF leaders from the three Matabeleland provinces- that he was disturbed by a report that he received from Zanu Politburo member and President of the Senate, Naison Khutshekhaya Ndlovu concerning the cleansing ceremony.
"He told us that he was now fighting with MDC national chairman Lovemore Moyo over allegations that some Zanu PF members had clandestinely gone to the sacred Njelele shrine to conduct rituals to cleanse themselves of bad luck.
"Kuthiwa abantu laba bebesithi babuyisa ekhaya amajaha lentombi ezafela khonale eChimoio, (We are told this people were bringing home spirits of men and women who died in Chimoio)," a source said.
VP Nkomo, the sources added, said the party members allegedly buried some bones from the remains of the dead freedom fighters and some stones from their graves at Njelele.
He appealed to the Matabeleland leadership to unite and solve the matter before it divides the nation on tribal grounds and spills to the office of President Robert Mugabe.
A three member committee consisting of Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu, the Governor of Matabeleland South province, Angeline Masuku and Zanu PF central committee member Khotsho Dube was tasked to investigate the issue and compile a report.
Contacted for comment, Governor Masuku confirmed the development.
"What you are talking about happened, but I will not give you the details because you Southern Star people wrote lies about me last week," was all Masuku could say when contacted for comment this week.
The Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo was furious over the matter.
"When they came here they lied and said they had been given permission to do their rites here by Chief Masuku, under whose jurisdiction Njelele falls. They went to Mozambique and came here via Masvingo.
"They said they were cleansing themselves of bad luck after 32 years. As a leader from the place, I was shocked because I was not consulted," said Moyo.
He said Chief Masuku told an Inkundla (traditional leader's meeting) on February 12 at his homestead that the Zanla members approached him and he told them not to go to Njelele because the place was sacred and was not shrine where bad luck was cleansed.
"What is more irritating is that they forced one of the Njelele custodians to go with them to Ovi River where more than 500 party members stripped and bathed, saying an inyanga had told them they should be watched by a female while bathing.
"They took traditional snuff, and washed in blood from goats they had sacrificed, burnt incense, sang and danced hysterically," fumed Moyo.
He said the ceremony was an insult and grossly disrespectful to the Ndebele people who hold the Njelele shrine with high regard.
ZAPU director of communications, Methuseli Moyo, breathed fire over the matter.
"As ZAPU, we have sent a delegation of elders to get to the bottom of the matter after hearing about this satanic Zanu PF act. There is no way we can disrespect and defile the Njelele shrine. These people have gone too far in taking Ndebele's and what they believe in lightly.
"The whole scary saga shows that Zanu PF and its ex-Zanla cadres are on a mission to erode in whichever way, anything that is associated with our people, culture and general normalcy. Our people must unite and deal decisively with the evil doers. Such rank disrespect of our leaders and sacred shrines is intolerable," said Moyo.
Bulawayo province spokesperson of the Welshman Ncube led MDC, Edwin Ndlovu also blasted Zanu PF for the "evil act" which he said was tantamount to witchcraft.
"What they did is the highest level of disrespect, indecency and insanity. Zanu PF and its war veterans must know that they do not own Njelele or any other shrine and they must respect traditional leaders.
"As a party we are going to investigate the issue and then we will confront Mugabe, their leader."
Historian, Phathisa Nyathi said the incident was "tragic."
"It is tragic that people are now associating severe drought in the region with the crime.
"From an African perspective, you never seek to resurrect a person who died violently. If those people brought stones, bones or anything from the dead at Chimoio to Njelele, they have literally brought death to the shrine which is supposed to give life," said Nyathi.
He said the defilement went even further if the people went there wearing colours that were taboo at the shrine.
"The Njelele colours are blue and black. If they wore anything with a red colour, or carried anything with red colours on it, then they have literally brought blood and death into the life and fertility giving shrine, of not only Matabeleland, but for the entire Zimbabwe.
"If they wanted to do anything related to war, they should have gone to the Dula shrine in Mtshabezi. Bones and stones from an Afrocentric point of view are identical in meaning as is soil from a grave. They represent the spirit of a dead person," said Nyathi.
According to sources that witnessed the proceedings, the traveling party of 600 allegedly stripped naked and desecrated the Njelele shrine, with a traditional healer from Mozambique, known as Nzete, who was lavishly paid to conduct the ritual.
The sources said the delegation, claiming to be composed of ex-Zanla ex-combatants, earlier on went to Chimoi in Mozambique were they exhumed remains of their colleagues who were killed during the liberation struggle.
They also took stones that were laid on their supposed colleagues' graves and transported these collections to Njelele shrine in the Matobo area both area for a secret re-burial ceremony.
It is alleged the ceremony and its arrangements was done at the behest of some senior Zanu PF party associates and members.
The move, it is alleged, has torched off a storm within the Zanu PF party as some radicals in the party believe this is a slap in the face of the regional leadership that has been dormant and docile for some time owing to lack of public support from people in the region.
Traditionalists also weighed in this week with criticism as the news filtered that such a ceremony was held, with most of them arguing the move could have telling effects on the region.
Most of them said there was bound to be starvation, drought, and hunger in the Matabeleland region if traditional ceremonies were not conducted to appease the Njelele spirit mediums.
Month long investigations by this paper, whose findings have been confirmed by senior Zanu PF, Movement for Democratic Change formations and the Dumiso Dabengwa led ZAPU â€" are to the effect that the group of war veterans did their cleansing ceremony without the knowledge and or consent of the local leadership in Matobo North and the Matabeleland region as a whole.
Sources spoken to say the war veterans who led the cleansing ceremony told locals in the Matobo area as well as those manning the Njelele shrine that they had been granted "authority from above" and got clearance from Chief Mbiko Mzimuni Masuku, who heads the area.
The group, numbering more than 600 men and women was ferried to and from Mozambique using 16 buses and more than 6 cars hired by unknown elements in Zanu PF.
A spirit medium identified as Nzete from Mozambique allegedly led the exhumation exercise in Chimoio, guiding the group all the way to Njelele where the secret burial was conducted.
Our sources said Nzete was paid handsomely to do lead the traditional ceremony.
At Njelele, the group is reported to have caused a stir as it sang and toyi-toyid in a typical guerilla format while singing Zanla liberation songs. They burnt traditional herbs and went on to conduct a secret cleansing ritual at Ovi River.
The matter reportedly came to light during a Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund (DIMAF) meeting at Elangeni Training Centre in Bulawayo last Sunday.
Sources that attended the meeting said Vice President John Nkomo told leaders from the Matabeleland Action Group- a grouping that brings together top Zanu PF leaders from the three Matabeleland provinces- that he was disturbed by a report that he received from Zanu Politburo member and President of the Senate, Naison Khutshekhaya Ndlovu concerning the cleansing ceremony.
"He told us that he was now fighting with MDC national chairman Lovemore Moyo over allegations that some Zanu PF members had clandestinely gone to the sacred Njelele shrine to conduct rituals to cleanse themselves of bad luck.
"Kuthiwa abantu laba bebesithi babuyisa ekhaya amajaha lentombi ezafela khonale eChimoio, (We are told this people were bringing home spirits of men and women who died in Chimoio)," a source said.
VP Nkomo, the sources added, said the party members allegedly buried some bones from the remains of the dead freedom fighters and some stones from their graves at Njelele.
He appealed to the Matabeleland leadership to unite and solve the matter before it divides the nation on tribal grounds and spills to the office of President Robert Mugabe.
A three member committee consisting of Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu, the Governor of Matabeleland South province, Angeline Masuku and Zanu PF central committee member Khotsho Dube was tasked to investigate the issue and compile a report.
"What you are talking about happened, but I will not give you the details because you Southern Star people wrote lies about me last week," was all Masuku could say when contacted for comment this week.
The Speaker of Parliament, Lovemore Moyo was furious over the matter.
"When they came here they lied and said they had been given permission to do their rites here by Chief Masuku, under whose jurisdiction Njelele falls. They went to Mozambique and came here via Masvingo.
"They said they were cleansing themselves of bad luck after 32 years. As a leader from the place, I was shocked because I was not consulted," said Moyo.
He said Chief Masuku told an Inkundla (traditional leader's meeting) on February 12 at his homestead that the Zanla members approached him and he told them not to go to Njelele because the place was sacred and was not shrine where bad luck was cleansed.
"What is more irritating is that they forced one of the Njelele custodians to go with them to Ovi River where more than 500 party members stripped and bathed, saying an inyanga had told them they should be watched by a female while bathing.
"They took traditional snuff, and washed in blood from goats they had sacrificed, burnt incense, sang and danced hysterically," fumed Moyo.
He said the ceremony was an insult and grossly disrespectful to the Ndebele people who hold the Njelele shrine with high regard.
ZAPU director of communications, Methuseli Moyo, breathed fire over the matter.
"As ZAPU, we have sent a delegation of elders to get to the bottom of the matter after hearing about this satanic Zanu PF act. There is no way we can disrespect and defile the Njelele shrine. These people have gone too far in taking Ndebele's and what they believe in lightly.
"The whole scary saga shows that Zanu PF and its ex-Zanla cadres are on a mission to erode in whichever way, anything that is associated with our people, culture and general normalcy. Our people must unite and deal decisively with the evil doers. Such rank disrespect of our leaders and sacred shrines is intolerable," said Moyo.
Bulawayo province spokesperson of the Welshman Ncube led MDC, Edwin Ndlovu also blasted Zanu PF for the "evil act" which he said was tantamount to witchcraft.
"What they did is the highest level of disrespect, indecency and insanity. Zanu PF and its war veterans must know that they do not own Njelele or any other shrine and they must respect traditional leaders.
"As a party we are going to investigate the issue and then we will confront Mugabe, their leader."
Historian, Phathisa Nyathi said the incident was "tragic."
"It is tragic that people are now associating severe drought in the region with the crime.
"From an African perspective, you never seek to resurrect a person who died violently. If those people brought stones, bones or anything from the dead at Chimoio to Njelele, they have literally brought death to the shrine which is supposed to give life," said Nyathi.
He said the defilement went even further if the people went there wearing colours that were taboo at the shrine.
"The Njelele colours are blue and black. If they wore anything with a red colour, or carried anything with red colours on it, then they have literally brought blood and death into the life and fertility giving shrine, of not only Matabeleland, but for the entire Zimbabwe.
"If they wanted to do anything related to war, they should have gone to the Dula shrine in Mtshabezi. Bones and stones from an Afrocentric point of view are identical in meaning as is soil from a grave. They represent the spirit of a dead person," said Nyathi.
Source - The Southern Star
