Opinion / Columnist
A crime against humanity cannot be covered by twisted definitions of words Peace and Unity
26 Dec 2021 at 09:53hrs | Views
In his speech on the Unity Day President E. D. Mnangagwa said a lot about the outcome of a unity accord that was signed by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe. Mr Mnangagwa describes Zanu's quest for a one party state as ‘fires of conflict". One can never imagine that the gentleman worked with BOSS, the apartheid intelligence spy network during that time to misinform Zimbabweans about Joshua Nkomo and Zapu.
National unity is not a political subjugation of political opponents through the barrel of the gun while they are not armed. Even fighting banditry is not cutting open the wombs of pregnant women to kill a yet to be born "dissident". There is no misunderstanding of different organisations when a government sends armed soldiers to kill unarmed members of another tribe for crimes allegedly committed by their forefathers more than a century ago. These few words describe Gukurahundi to which Joshua Nkomo and Zapu succumbed on that fateful day of December 22. Gukurahundi has been categorised as genocide.
Nkomo's desperate signature had nothing to do with the unity of the Zimbabwean people who have always been united. Zimbabweans have not needed Zanu and Zapu to create families as they intermarry for many years. In sport they have belonged to the same clubs as Dynamos was chaired by Morisson Sifelani for a long time. He came from Mbembesi in Matebeland North. Peter Zimuto and Isaac Mafaro played for Highlanders in 70s.
Peace is not the absence of an armed opposition to a seating government. Peace does not exist in a country when its youths abandon it in their thousands. Peace is that assurance that one is able to live in his country of birth with a hope of fending for oneself. It is far from being docile and blindly submissive because any voice of dissent invites arrest, incarceration and brutal torture.
As for a commitment to addressing effects or the aftermaths of the Gukurahundi genocide, Mr E D Mnangagwa will have to undergo a miraculous experience similar to that one of the Biblical Saul of Tarsus. Absolute honest and sincerity will never be substituted by sweet descriptions of peace and unity while up to today there are gross human rights violations. The world at large saw soldiers shooting down civilians who were demonstrating after elections in 2018. No redress, no accountability whatsoever.
On the same day that Mr Mnangagwa was giving his speech, Ibhetshu likaZulu a non-violent human rights organisation was barred from holding a commemoration of Gukurahundi victims. How does one heal the wounds of the aggrieved if they are not even allowed to talk about the pains they feel?
President E D Mnangagwa can deploy ZanuPF chiefs as he likes. He can engage or re-engage as he is doing with some pseudo political opposition parties since he has the power and the money to do so, but all these do not erase one truism which is that, Gukurahundi is a crime against humanity. It therefore has to be addressed as it is. Zimbabwean generations will not forever live with the memories, the pains and even the distortions of that carnage in silence as it tends to manifest itself time and again even these days.
National unity is not a political subjugation of political opponents through the barrel of the gun while they are not armed. Even fighting banditry is not cutting open the wombs of pregnant women to kill a yet to be born "dissident". There is no misunderstanding of different organisations when a government sends armed soldiers to kill unarmed members of another tribe for crimes allegedly committed by their forefathers more than a century ago. These few words describe Gukurahundi to which Joshua Nkomo and Zapu succumbed on that fateful day of December 22. Gukurahundi has been categorised as genocide.
Nkomo's desperate signature had nothing to do with the unity of the Zimbabwean people who have always been united. Zimbabweans have not needed Zanu and Zapu to create families as they intermarry for many years. In sport they have belonged to the same clubs as Dynamos was chaired by Morisson Sifelani for a long time. He came from Mbembesi in Matebeland North. Peter Zimuto and Isaac Mafaro played for Highlanders in 70s.
Peace is not the absence of an armed opposition to a seating government. Peace does not exist in a country when its youths abandon it in their thousands. Peace is that assurance that one is able to live in his country of birth with a hope of fending for oneself. It is far from being docile and blindly submissive because any voice of dissent invites arrest, incarceration and brutal torture.
As for a commitment to addressing effects or the aftermaths of the Gukurahundi genocide, Mr E D Mnangagwa will have to undergo a miraculous experience similar to that one of the Biblical Saul of Tarsus. Absolute honest and sincerity will never be substituted by sweet descriptions of peace and unity while up to today there are gross human rights violations. The world at large saw soldiers shooting down civilians who were demonstrating after elections in 2018. No redress, no accountability whatsoever.
On the same day that Mr Mnangagwa was giving his speech, Ibhetshu likaZulu a non-violent human rights organisation was barred from holding a commemoration of Gukurahundi victims. How does one heal the wounds of the aggrieved if they are not even allowed to talk about the pains they feel?
President E D Mnangagwa can deploy ZanuPF chiefs as he likes. He can engage or re-engage as he is doing with some pseudo political opposition parties since he has the power and the money to do so, but all these do not erase one truism which is that, Gukurahundi is a crime against humanity. It therefore has to be addressed as it is. Zimbabwean generations will not forever live with the memories, the pains and even the distortions of that carnage in silence as it tends to manifest itself time and again even these days.
Source - Mkhululi Zulu
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