Riot police besiege Bulawayo High Court

Heavily armed riot police yesterday descended on the Bulawayo High Court, blocking journalists and activists from attending a high-profile hearing in which opposition leader Sibangilizwe Nkomo sought to stop the controversial chiefs-led Gukurahundi outreach programme.

Nkomo, the president of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu), had filed an urgent chamber application challenging the legitimacy and impartiality of the traditional leaders spearheading the hearings, which were meant to begin last week but were delayed due to what authorities described as logistical setbacks.

Police cordoned off the court premises and barred members of the public and media from entering, igniting outrage among civil society groups who accuse the government of attempting to stifle transparency and suppress dissent around one of the country’s most painful historical episodes.

The Gukurahundi massacres, carried out in the early 1980s by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade under the command of then-Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands. The victims were largely supporters of Zapu and members of the Ndebele-speaking community.

After the hearing, Nkomo was briefly prevented by riot police from addressing his supporters and the press outside the courthouse.

"Gukurahundi is a genocide, and we are going to continue pursuing peace," Nkomo said after being moved from the courthouse perimeter. "It does not matter that today we did not achieve what we intended - to stop the hearings - but we will continue to pursue other measures such as seeking dialogue and engagement with authorities."

Nkomo’s legal challenge targeted a 2019 resolution that gave traditional chiefs the mandate to lead community hearings on Gukurahundi, following an agreement between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a civil society alliance known as the Matabeleland Collective. Nkomo argued the process lacked legal grounding and risked whitewashing state accountability.

"We are of the firm view that chiefs, and more particularly the National Council of Chiefs, are unlikely to be impartial and unbiased in the conduct of the process," he stated in court papers.

He cited Mnangagwa, Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe, Chiefs Council President Chief Mtshane Khumalo, and the National Chiefs Council as respondents in the case.

Critics say Mnangagwa’s role as State Security Minister during the Gukurahundi atrocities disqualifies him from credibly overseeing the national healing process.

Veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle also weighed in. Zipra Veterans Association spokesperson Buster Magwizi described the police presence at the court as intimidation.

"As Zipra, we are complaining that the State is refusing to accept that the Gukurahundi issue must be addressed properly," Magwizi said. "That we get harassed and forced to be silent - are we in a war? Why are we being treated like enemies?"

Nkomo further noted that genuine closure for victims and their families could never be found through what he described as a flawed and opaque process.

"The agreement between the President and the Matabeleland Collective has no legal foundation," Nkomo said. "We have the legitimacy to politically represent the electorate and the generality of the people of Matabeleland and Midlands, the affected regions."

President Mnangagwa has previously pledged to address the atrocities, which his predecessor Robert Mugabe infamously referred to as "a moment of madness." However, Mugabe died in 2019 without offering an apology or initiating formal justice and truth-seeking mechanisms.

Despite Nkomo’s application, the hearings are set to proceed under the guidance of the National Council of Chiefs - a development that continues to divide public opinion and raise questions about whether true justice and healing are genuinely on the agenda.