News / National
Relatives of Gukurahundi victims urged to contact Ministry on reburials
19 Aug 2016 at 06:18hrs | Views
RELATIVES of victims of political disturbances in the 1980s in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces seeking to exhume remains of their family members for reburials should approach the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, told Members of Parliament on Wednesday that every Zimbabwean deserves a decent burial, thus the need to approach the relevant Ministry.
President Mugabe has described the period of political disturbances as a moment of madness and a sad chapter in the country's history.
VP Mnangagwa was responding to a question posed by Matabeleland South proportional representation MP Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga who asked the VP on procedures to be taken by relatives of victims seeking to re-bury their relatives. "There are a lot of people who were killed during the Gukurahundi period. I am saying the villagers want the bodies to be exhumed and reburied properly, how can they go about it," she asked.
Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga said her question was emanating from what she observed in Mashonaland where war veterans were exhuming and reburying remains of freedom fighters that are not properly buried.
VP Mnangagwa said all matters of reburials should be referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
"If my niece was listening properly, I have said that all those whose remains have not been properly buried all over the country, all such matters should be referred to the Ministry of Home Affairs, they are the relevant authority that deals with such issues," said the VP.
"It could be that they know that here in Mashonaland, the war veterans are going around the country looking for their fellow veterans who were not properly buried and reburying them. We cannot order these war veterans to do that but this can be done by the Ministry of Home Affairs. They have a department that could deal with that. If there are remains that need to be reburied, that can be done by that Ministry."
Source - chronicle
