News / Local
Mthwakazi presses for Gukurahundi compensation
07 Jul 2023 at 07:56hrs | Views
THE Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) wants the international community to pressure President Emmerson Mnangagwa to compensate Gukurahundi victims.
There has been no redress to the 1980s mass killings that left over 20 000 people dead in Midlands and Matebeleland provinces.
The late former President Robert Mugabe had deployed a North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade unit to target suspected PF Zapu dissidents, resulting in the massacre of innocent civilians.
Mugabe never publicly apologised for the massacre, only saying it was "a moment of madness".
MRP leader Mqondisi Moyo said they would continue piling pressure on government to address the emotive subject.
"The lack of compensation for the families and victims of Gukurahundi genocide is keeping the wounds fresh," he said.
"We have not been compensated till this day... We are targeting the international community with our online petition, where we are seeking the signatures of victims of Gukurahundi and other human rights victims so that we sound the trumpet to the world."
Mnangagwa, who at the time of the massacres was State Security minister, has opened public debate on Gukurahundi and has met traditional leaders and civic society groups to address the matter.
Chiefs have been tasked to lead the healing and compensation processes.
In 2021, government said it was drafting an exhumation and reburial policy to put to finality the emotive issue. Government has also said exhumation and reburial would be carried out on a case-by-case basis and the relevant chiefs would give guidance.
This resulted in the exhumation and reburial of Justin Tshuma and Thembi Ngwenya in Tsholotsho's Enkwalini community in 2019, who were killed by members of the Fifth Brigade in March 1983.
There has been no redress to the 1980s mass killings that left over 20 000 people dead in Midlands and Matebeleland provinces.
The late former President Robert Mugabe had deployed a North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade unit to target suspected PF Zapu dissidents, resulting in the massacre of innocent civilians.
Mugabe never publicly apologised for the massacre, only saying it was "a moment of madness".
MRP leader Mqondisi Moyo said they would continue piling pressure on government to address the emotive subject.
"We have not been compensated till this day... We are targeting the international community with our online petition, where we are seeking the signatures of victims of Gukurahundi and other human rights victims so that we sound the trumpet to the world."
Mnangagwa, who at the time of the massacres was State Security minister, has opened public debate on Gukurahundi and has met traditional leaders and civic society groups to address the matter.
Chiefs have been tasked to lead the healing and compensation processes.
In 2021, government said it was drafting an exhumation and reburial policy to put to finality the emotive issue. Government has also said exhumation and reburial would be carried out on a case-by-case basis and the relevant chiefs would give guidance.
This resulted in the exhumation and reburial of Justin Tshuma and Thembi Ngwenya in Tsholotsho's Enkwalini community in 2019, who were killed by members of the Fifth Brigade in March 1983.
Source - Southern Eye
