'Mnangagwa's govt must protect Gukurahundi plaques'

Ibhetshu LikaZulu, a pressure group based in Matebeleland, has called on the government to deploy security personnel to protect memorial plaques that the organization erected on several Gukurahundi mass graves in Matebeleland and Midlands provinces, as some of them have been vandalized.

The pressure group claims that suspected State security agents have vandalized the plaques on multiple occasions. Their secretary-general, Mbuso Fuzwayo, mentioned that they plan to replace the plaques damaged at the Bhalagwe mass graves in Matobo and Silobela, Midlands province this month. Fuzwayo emphasized that the government has a moral obligation to honor the estimated 20,000 civilians who were killed by the army during the Gukurahundi massacres of the early 1980s.

Fuzwayo questioned why the vandals only targeted the Gukurahundi plaques while leaving Rhodesian plaques untouched. He believes that the government should publicly acknowledge the mistakes of the past and take responsibility for protecting these memorial plaques.

The pressure group is working on a program to replace the destroyed plaques and expand their installations to various areas, as they continue to receive requests to replace the damaged plaques. In July, Ibhetshu LikaZulu collaborated with other interest groups to erect a memorial plaque on a mass grave in Tsholotsho, marking the site where six people were allegedly killed by the army in 1983.