TSHOLOTSHO villagers in conjunction with human rights groups, opposition political parties and civic society activists on Saturday held a memorial service for the 27 people who were burnt to death during the Gukurahundi massacres.
The victims, who included children and women, were killed in Silonkwe village by the South Korea-trained Fifth Brigade on February 24, 1983.
The event came at a time when the government had initiated the much-criticised Gukurahundi programme led by chiefs drawn from the Matabeleland region meant to bring closure for victims and relatives of victims.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently announced that the budget for the programme is ready though he could disclose the amount.
One of the memorial service organisers Ibhetshu LikaZulu secretary-general Mbuso Fuzwayo said the event was meant to remember those who lost their lives during the massacres.
“These were commemorations in memory of children, women, some of them pregnant and men who were burnt to death on February 24, 1983 in Silonkwe then Tjolotjo (Tsholotsho). In total they burnt 27 people to death and only one person managed to escape,” Fuzwayo said.
“The community says before the killings, they were all summoned to a ward meeting and the leader of the army said if they had known there were many people, they would have brought a caterpillar to kill them.
“They spoke about dissidents and one elderly man said he never saw them and the soldiers responded saying sadly you are going to die without seeing them. The only surviving old woman was thankful that at least she had witnessed the memorial service before she died. She is the one with relatives who are late and were buried in a mass grave.”
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The event was attended by local traditional leaders, villagers, Tsholotsho North legislator Libion Sibanda and Matabeleland North Proportional Representation MP Sethulo Ndebele, among others.
Ibhetshu LikaZulu, villagers and other stakeholders last week installed a Gukurahundi plaque at Bhalagwe mass grave for the fourth time after the ones they previously installed were bombed, vandalised or stolen.
