'Mutasa was not involved in the Gukurahundi massacres'

FORMER-PF Zapu secretary-general Cephas Msipa yesterday leapt to axed Zanu-PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa's defence saying he was not involved in the Gukurahundi massacres.

According to the Southern Eye, Mutasa at the weekend claimed that although he was the Speaker of Parliament when the atrocities were committed in Matabeleland and the Midlands, he was not aware how the military operation was executed.

The former Security minister was Speaker of Parliament at the time when then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe unleashed the North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade into the region under the pretext of hunting down a hand-full of "bandits" then linked to former-PF Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo.

Msipa said the military operation was planned at Cabinet level and Mutasa could not have been involved.

"What I know and what is true is that Mutasa was not a member of Cabinet," he told Southern Eye yesterday.

"The Gukurahundi issue, according to my knowledge, was discussed at Cabinet level and I do not remember the issue being discussed in the National Assembly.

"I might have forgotten and I am sorry, but I cannot remember whether the issue was also discussed in Parliament. I am certain we discussed it in Cabinet."

Msipa was the second most powerful person within Nkomo's-PF Zapu during the massacres believed to have claimed 20 000 lives.

The Information minister Jonathan Moyo accused Mutasa of lying about his knowledge of Gukurahundi.

"Mutasa says he didn't know of Gukurahundi as he was Parliament Speaker in Harare yet-PF Zapu told all in Parliament!" Moyo said.