News / Regional
MDC-T MP to force parliament to enact Gukurahundi law
19 Apr 2012 at 09:12hrs | Views
Felix Magagela Sibanda, Magwegwe MP, says he will next month introduce a private members' Bill to force Parliament to enact legislation to provide for compensation of victims of the Gukurahundi massacres.
Sibanda said his pressure group, the Post-Independence Survival Trust (PIST), had started lobbying MPs to support the motion, which he plans to introduce on May 15, NewsDay reported.
Sibanda said he was hopeful that the Bill would be supported by MPs from both MDC formations.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last month also called for the compensation of Gukurahundi and other victims of political violence that has rocked the country since independence.
Compensation is not just monetary, but it includes development of all the regions that were affected, Sibanda said.
PIST was formed five years ago to investigate the effects of Gukurahundi atrocities and push for compensation of the victims.
In 2006, then independent MP for Tsholotsho Jonathan Moyo drafted a Gukurahundi National Memorial Bill, which would have criminalised the denial of the atrocities, and established a Gukurahundi National Memorial shrine, fund and board, but the proposed Bill never reached Parliament although it was widely circulated among MPs.
According to Moyo, who is now a Zanu-PF politburo member, the proposed Bill was meant to develop and maintain a credible record of Gukurahundi atrocities and plan and implement national programmes aimed at eliminating any tension or divisions caused by or related to Gukurahundi atrocities.
Gukurahundi has remained an emotive issue among villagers, politicians and civic society groups in Midlands and Matabeleland who bore the brunt of the atrocities where about 20 000 villagers were killed by a North Korean-trained
military crack team, Fifth Brigade, between 1982 and 1987.
Political parties always seek publicity on Gukurahundi but it is unfortunate that there is no law that hastens and operationalises compensation of the victims.
Sibanda said his pressure group, the Post-Independence Survival Trust (PIST), had started lobbying MPs to support the motion, which he plans to introduce on May 15, NewsDay reported.
Sibanda said he was hopeful that the Bill would be supported by MPs from both MDC formations.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last month also called for the compensation of Gukurahundi and other victims of political violence that has rocked the country since independence.
Compensation is not just monetary, but it includes development of all the regions that were affected, Sibanda said.
PIST was formed five years ago to investigate the effects of Gukurahundi atrocities and push for compensation of the victims.
In 2006, then independent MP for Tsholotsho Jonathan Moyo drafted a Gukurahundi National Memorial Bill, which would have criminalised the denial of the atrocities, and established a Gukurahundi National Memorial shrine, fund and board, but the proposed Bill never reached Parliament although it was widely circulated among MPs.
According to Moyo, who is now a Zanu-PF politburo member, the proposed Bill was meant to develop and maintain a credible record of Gukurahundi atrocities and plan and implement national programmes aimed at eliminating any tension or divisions caused by or related to Gukurahundi atrocities.
Gukurahundi has remained an emotive issue among villagers, politicians and civic society groups in Midlands and Matabeleland who bore the brunt of the atrocities where about 20 000 villagers were killed by a North Korean-trained
military crack team, Fifth Brigade, between 1982 and 1987.
Political parties always seek publicity on Gukurahundi but it is unfortunate that there is no law that hastens and operationalises compensation of the victims.
Source - newsday
