Mnangagwa is respecting Gukurahundi victims - 20 000 victims was just an estimate I came up with

I would like to wade into the debate/ discussion on the thorny and sensitive issue of the need for national healing, peace and reconciliation in Zimbabwe following the human rights violations/abuses over the years from 1980 to date. These violations include the horrific massacres/genocide in the Ndebele speaking parts of the Midlands and Matabeleland painfully known as Gukurahundi. Today, I specifically want to wade into  the discussion following President Emerson Mnangagwa's interview at DAVOS at the World Economic Forum.
Many have criticized the President for refusing to apologize for the massacres of the Gukurahundi. I have followed the interview with keen interest and have a slightly different analysis.

I note that the President did not deny the fact that the massacres did happen.. More than once he repeated that "what happened did happen". Further, he said as a way forward, he had just signed a bill into an Act of Parliament (into law), that will engage in a process of healing taking into account the feelings, views and suggestions of the communities that were affected.

I find the process of taking on board the views and suggestions of the affected communities more respective of the victims than a Media enduced apology. I believe that a media apology would be to spite the process of engagement of the victims. I think it would be trivializing the healing process were the perpetrators (Zanupf Gvt) of the atrocities to decide when and how to apologize and get away with it.

On this occasion, I believe that the President is demonstrating the seriousness with which he is taking the national healing process. I believe that he is respecting the victims and how they feel including what the victims would consider a reconciliatory solution.

In the last few days, I have been concerned about propaganda attempts at spin doctoring the events of Gukurahundi to create the mischievous impression that victims of the atrocities deserved the treatment and that the ZANU government was justified. Such spinning came from one, Thambolenyoka, who  volunteered his identity as a dissident and went on to explain why he became dissident and how he would operate. The other is an anonymous article by someone who seems to have been conveniently at the right place as a youth worker, then a member of the Support Unit to have inside knowledge that it was actually ZAPU and Zipra who were killing people and throwing them into deep wells. The level of arrogance and insult by such  attempts is alarming. I leave that for another day hoping that such spin doctors begin to realize that the victims are not stupid neither were they stupid when their communities were being  exterminated.

To come back to the Davos interview, I like to comment on the number of people killed during Gukurahundi operations. The President seemed to dispute the  figure of 20 000. May I honour up and explain how the figure of 20000 came about. I was the National Director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace when I was asked by BBC what I put the number of killed to. My response was that considering that every family in the Ndebele speaking communities of the Midlands and the whole of Matabeleland, had a member or members of their family killed or disappeared, a very conservative number would be 20000. I believed that at the rate people were being killed, 20000 would have been at the very low end. I have little doubt that a proper accounting for the victims would come up with a much higher figure.

I am not sure whether at this point  we would want to stall the process of national healing by numbers of victims as that would in itself be a subject for many years. For nów, I believe the President is showing signs of determination to see this issue honourably resolved. He should be judged by his failure or success in what he is promising and putting in motion. I would say that as regard the issue of Gukurahundi let us continue to follow closely the process he has put in motion with a view to assist in that process so that the affected communities feel the dignity of being part of Zimbabwe.

Nicholas Mlamuli Ndebele
(Former National Director, Catholic Commission for Justice & Peace :  Founder of ZimRights.).
25 January 2018