News / National
Mutsvangwa booed at Joshua Nkomo lecture
19 Jun 2017 at 10:06hrs | Views
THERE was commotion on Saturday when former Zanla cadre and war veterans Chairman, Christopher Mutsvangwa, was booed by activists from Matebeleland as he presented his paper during the Joshua Nkomo Memorial Lecture at Wits University, in South Africa.
According to NewZimbabwe.com, it took former home affairs minister, Dumiso Dabengwa's intervention to calm the storm.
Ahead of the booing, the Mthwakazi activists had made a protest walk out singing 'Babe bulala obaba' (They killed our fathers) as soon as Mutsvangwa stood to deliver his lecture.
According to the activists, Mutsvangwa, a former Zanla cadre, had no business at an event which celebrated the life of Nkomo whom Zanu-PF sought to kill during the 1980s Gukurahundi genocide.
However, Mutsvangwa did not help his case as he began to talk about his expulsion from the government, laying the blame for Zimbabwe's problems on a Zanu-PF faction called Generation 40 which he said was masterminded by the education minister, Jonathan Moyo.
"What has the G40 got to do with Nkomo?" yelled the activists who had quietly walked back to boo a stunned Mutsvangwa.
"Viva Joshua Nkomo. Phansi Ngo Mugabe. Phansi Nge Gukurahuni," they further shouted leading to total commotion.
The Nkomo Memorial Lecture came as thousands of people from Matebeleland who are based in South Africa are still bitter over the 1980s massacres which claimed an estimated 20 00 civilians.
Most of them are pushing for a separate state to be named Mthwakazi.
According to NewZimbabwe.com, it took former home affairs minister, Dumiso Dabengwa's intervention to calm the storm.
Ahead of the booing, the Mthwakazi activists had made a protest walk out singing 'Babe bulala obaba' (They killed our fathers) as soon as Mutsvangwa stood to deliver his lecture.
According to the activists, Mutsvangwa, a former Zanla cadre, had no business at an event which celebrated the life of Nkomo whom Zanu-PF sought to kill during the 1980s Gukurahundi genocide.
"What has the G40 got to do with Nkomo?" yelled the activists who had quietly walked back to boo a stunned Mutsvangwa.
"Viva Joshua Nkomo. Phansi Ngo Mugabe. Phansi Nge Gukurahuni," they further shouted leading to total commotion.
The Nkomo Memorial Lecture came as thousands of people from Matebeleland who are based in South Africa are still bitter over the 1980s massacres which claimed an estimated 20 00 civilians.
Most of them are pushing for a separate state to be named Mthwakazi.
Source - New Zimbabwe
