The Matebelaland Genocide now a hot potato and set to consume perpetrators

On the 20th March 2017 the ANN7 Africa News Network interviewed Ayanda Manala the International Human Rights Activist and Yanga Mhluzi the PR for Siphesakhe Youth Organisation in a special programme for commemorating the 1960 Sharpeville massacres which the then apartheid regime gunned down innocent protesting citizens. Mr Manala and Mhluzi approached the issue of human rights violations from a continental and international perspective with special focus on the Matebeleland Genocide which occurred between 1982 to 1987 which was perpetrated by the Zimbabwean government against the Matebele people in all their various ethnicities.

The interviewer was shocked by the knowledge Mr Manala and Mhluzi had on the genocide, however, she was least interested in the genocide, she attempted to side step the conversation on genocide, however, the intellectually astute interviewees kept on bringing up the issue of Matebeleland genocide. They used what is call guerrilla ambush tactics a strategy which derives its strength on shock and awe in overwhelming the opponent.

Mr Mhluzi decried the silence about the Matebeleland Genocide and that the perpetrators of the genocide are still walking the earth, some people look up to them as heroes without knowing the crimes they committed against the Matebele people just because they are a different tribe to them. Mr Mhluzi identified President Robert Mugabe, Perence Shiri, and Mnangagwa as the chief perpetrators of the Matebeleland genocide. Mr Mhluzi went on to say that the mere fact that these perpetrators are scot-free today is in itself an insult to the victims of the genocide.

Mr Manala explained that the gukurahundi genocide delayed the South African freedom as uMkhonto wesizwe which had bases in Matebeleland was also severely affected by the genocide and its operations curtailed due to Mugabe and the apartheid regime working in cahoots.

For a long time the government of Robert Mugabe has survived on tribalism, however, has always succeeded in portraying its opponents as tribalists, but now the youth has seen through its shenanigans and is prepared to expose its evil ways.

The interview also worked as a preparation for the Matebeleland genocide march which effectively took place on the 21st March 2017, actually, the first of its kind in the streets of Johannesburg.

A huge crowd thronged the streets buoyantly and vibrantly to the sound of revolutionary songs, toyi-toyi and slogans. Many Matebeleland and South African Organisations attended the march, which was dubbed a resounding success and a herald to many bigger things to come. South African organisations such as Siphesakhe Youth Organisation; uMkhonto wesizwe; and Thembelihle Crisis Committee attended the march. Mthwakazi organisations and individuals heeded the call to the battle front and it was a sight to behold to see the Matebele in unity and song.

A petition to the Minister of Home Affairs was delivered days before the march, the thrust of the petition was that the people from Matebeleland are effectively stateless people and that a special dispensation for them should be arranged to accord them a settled status in South Africa whilst they are still in the process of liberating their country Mthwakazi.

It is now clear that the Matebeleland genocide is increasingly becoming a hot potato which will soon wholly consume the perpetrators. In the meantime, the chorus for restoration is becoming louder and louder, a new kid on the block was unveiled on the 21st March 2017, the name of the new organisation is '1893 Matebeleland Restoration Movement' under the enterprising leadership of Mr Vusani Maqeda Ngwenya. Its moto is 'Restore, Rebuild and Prosper' a very befitting moto to the cause of Mthwakazi.