'Compensate Gukurahundi victims'

The acting chairperson of the MDC renewal team, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo on Sunday said the issue of Gukurahundi will not be resolved unless there is a truth and reconciliation commission to handle it and victims of the post-independence violence are compensated.

His party also pledged to start assisting victims of Gukurahundi, especially children, with school fees.

Addressing about 500 members of his party at a meeting at Stanley Hall in Bulawayo, Nkomo   said the remarks made by Sibangilizwe Nkomo, the only surviving son of the late Father Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo, that people should unite and "forget" about the past, while well-meaning, were not entirely correct.

"You don't forget until you talk," said the MDC renewal acting chairperson.  "You talk to people in Tsholotsho, Kezi … who had their relatives put in a hut which was locked and doused with paraffin before being set ablaze.  We can't forget without talking. My own brother was killed by Gukurahundi. We can forgive, but will not forget."

Nkomo said a truth and reconciliation commission should be set up to deal with problems of Gukurahundi.

"People must be allowed to confess their sins and then we can find peace," he said amid thunderous applause from the audience.

Speaking at the same meeting, the treasurer-general of MDC renewal team, Elton Mangoma, told the gathering that his party would compensate victims of Gukurahundi.

The post-independence violence that saw the Fifth Brigade being unleashed on mostly -PF-Zapu supporters only came to an end in 1987 after the signing of the Unity Accord between-PF Zapu represented by Nkomo  and Zanu-PF represented by President Robert Mugabe.

"When we form the next government, we want to look at the plight of victims in this country, starting with those of Gukurahundi," said Mangoma.  "We will pay compensation for people who were killed, goats and cattle killed.  Where the children need to have school fees paid or medical expenses paid for victims, we will start helping them now as a party before we come into government."

Later in his address, the MDC renewal team acting chairperson, Nkomo, also spoke about the need for government to put in place metropolitan provincial councils in line with the spirit of devolution of power provided for in the new constitution.

Nkomo said he had approached the courts to have this enforced as this was the only way that would stem the problem of government resources being channeled to Mashonaland at the expense of Matabeleland.

"I am not talking about tribes here," he said.  "I know there are some who are not from here … some have even lived here for a long time they have become Matabele since they are in Matabeleland.  Together with them, we are saying, we want to conduct development and handle our affairs on our own," he said.

At the start of yesterday's meeting, the MDC renewal team members sang the Pan-African anthem, Nkosi Sikelela iAfrica, which the party ‘s provincial chairperson for Bulawayo, prominent human rights lawyer, Kucaca Phulu, explained as an act to show there was still oppression in the country.

The meeting was attended by the party's secretary-general, Tendai Biti, women's assembly leader Evelyn Masaiti, Matabeleland North provincial chairperson Sengezo Tshabangu and Matabeleland South provincial chairperson Watchy Sibanda, among other leaders of the political organisation that started in April this year after Tsvangirai resisted calls to step down.