OUTSPOKEN Bulawayo war veteran Max Mkandla has warned that efforts to bring closure to the emotive Gukurahundi issue without involving Zipra war veterans will not achieve desired results, but applauded President Emmerson Mnangagwa for trying to resolve the matter.
About 20 000 unarmed civilians in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces were killed by the North Korea-trained 6th Brigade army in the 1980s disturbances, according to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP).
Mkandla told Southern Eye that Mnangagwa deserved praise for opening debate to find closure to the issue.
“The new dispensation can be commended for ensuring freedom of speech to discuss this issue. This was not so during (the late former President Robert) Mugabe’s rule. One could be killed for opening such discussions,” he said.
“We appreciate the idea of assigning the chiefs to lead in the Gukurahundi process, but as long as those processes do not include Zipra structures, it will be a non-starter because the Zipra cadres were the ones targeted by the massacres that ended up involving ordinary civilians in Matabeleland.”
Mkandla said Gukurahundi needed closure.
In October, Mnangagwa launched a Gukurahundi manual where he said chiefs should engage communities about the issue and come up with a report.
Critics, however, feel that Mnangagwa cannot lead the process as he was part of the government as State Security minister when the massacres took place.
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