News / Local
Unity Accord dead, says ex-chief Ndiweni
23 May 2022 at 06:42hrs | Views
DETHRONED Ntabazinduna Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni has said President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration effectively dumped the 1987 Unity Accord by not appointing a Zapu side Vice-President.
The Unity Accord was signed between then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF and Joshua Nkomo of Zapu, who became Mubage's vice-president afterwards, to end the violence.
Currently, government has one Vice-President after Kembo Mohadi unceremoniously resigned last year, but remained a second Zanu-PF party vice-president.
"The Unity Accord was broken by Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF kept the name Zanu-PF and removed Zapu from positions within the government of the day. The current President Mnangagwa has refused to give Zapu the Vice-President position, an act that speaks volumes that, indeed, the Unity Accord is dead," Ndiweni said.
He also complained that the manner and descriptions given to Gukurahundi by the Zanu-PF government since Mugabe's time show that the perpetrators are belittling the killings.
Between 1983 and 1987, the Zanu-PF government unleashed the North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade Regiment in Matabeleland and Midlands to stem what it termed a dissident menace.
Over 20 000 unarmed civilians including men, women, children and unborn children, were killed.
Thousands of women and girls were reportedly raped, thousands more were injured and nearly a million were displaced.
The Unity Accord silenced the guns of genocide in 1987.
Ndiweni said the Zanu-PF government sought to destroy evidence by blocking exhumation of victims.
Ndiweni noted that justice was needed to resolve Gukurahundi, adding that the criminals would get away with murder in the absence of a judicial process.
His remarks come at a time when Mnangagwa had tasked chiefs to deal with the emotive issue.
The Unity Accord was signed between then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of Zanu-PF and Joshua Nkomo of Zapu, who became Mubage's vice-president afterwards, to end the violence.
Currently, government has one Vice-President after Kembo Mohadi unceremoniously resigned last year, but remained a second Zanu-PF party vice-president.
"The Unity Accord was broken by Zanu-PF. Zanu-PF kept the name Zanu-PF and removed Zapu from positions within the government of the day. The current President Mnangagwa has refused to give Zapu the Vice-President position, an act that speaks volumes that, indeed, the Unity Accord is dead," Ndiweni said.
He also complained that the manner and descriptions given to Gukurahundi by the Zanu-PF government since Mugabe's time show that the perpetrators are belittling the killings.
Between 1983 and 1987, the Zanu-PF government unleashed the North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade Regiment in Matabeleland and Midlands to stem what it termed a dissident menace.
Thousands of women and girls were reportedly raped, thousands more were injured and nearly a million were displaced.
The Unity Accord silenced the guns of genocide in 1987.
Ndiweni said the Zanu-PF government sought to destroy evidence by blocking exhumation of victims.
Ndiweni noted that justice was needed to resolve Gukurahundi, adding that the criminals would get away with murder in the absence of a judicial process.
His remarks come at a time when Mnangagwa had tasked chiefs to deal with the emotive issue.
Source - newsday
