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Gukurundi victims searching for closure four decades later
BY CYRIL ZENDA
Four decades after the start of pogroms that left over 20,000 dead and tens of thousands others missing and or displaced in Zimbabwe, survivors are still searching for closure.
But closure remain elusive.
On the night of January 6, “unknown people” used explosives to blow up a memorial plaque at Bhalagwe, a former detention camp where thousands of people were detained and tortured – many of them to death.
It was the third time within two years that this plaque, which is considered offensive by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government, had been destroyed.
It is a memorial set up to memorialise the over 20,000 people from the Ndebele tribal group that were killed when the post-Independence government of Zimbabwe unleashed a crack military unit on the western parts of the country, then opposition strongholds.
This dark episode in the country’s history – referred to as the Gukurahundi era – started in 1982 when friction between two former liberation movements, Zanu PF and PF Zapu, boiled over into an armed conflict.
Then prime minister, the late Robert Mugabe, responded by deploying his special North Korean-trained army unit called the Fifth Brigade to these strongholds of the opposition PF Zapu.
Robert Mugabe
By the time a peace was restored through a lopsided unity accord in December 1987, over 20,000 had died and thousands others were maimed, raped or had gone missing in what had turned out to be a tribal genocide.
Ibhetshu Likazulu, a local pressure group made up of advocates representing Gukurahundi victims, put up the memorial plaque and those that have been destroyed previously.
The group is among the most vocal of civil society organisations calling for accountability for the massacres.
“They have no shame, today they used an explosive, the unrepentant Gukurahundists continue to destroy the memory of their diabolic acts, they blew off the Bhalagwe plaque, we will not forget, we cry for justice, Gukurahundi was genocide, we demand justice,” the pressure group stated, reacting to the latest destruction of the plaque in a tweet.
Life Of Indignity, Statelessness
Over the years, efforts by survivors of the genocide and relatives of victims to get closure to this episode have brought them no joy as the government has continued to frustrate them, condemning them to a life of indignity and even of statelessness.
“I was born during the Gukurahundi time and when my mother died when I was 14 in 1999, I still had no birth certificate and since her death, none of her relatives are comfortable relating to me because to them, I am an object of shame to the family,” Ndaba (37), an artisanal miner, told FairPlanet in an interview.
He is one of the thousands of children that were born from the mass rapes which constituted an integral part of the Gukurahundi strategy.
“Without identity documents, there is nothing for me to show that I am a Zimbabwean […] I am stateless,” he added.
Without identity documents, Ndaba could not proceed with his education, nor can he get a formal job or even enjoy basic services such as opening a bank account.
He is one of the hundreds of thousands of stateless people from the three western and southwestern provinces of Zimbabwe that were affected by the strife where several generations have no identity documents.
Even long after peace had been restored, the people of Matabeleland have suffered systematic discrimination and marginalisation from successive Harare administrations.
Half-Hearted Attempts To Bring Closure
Under pressure from survivors and relatives of victims, Mnangagwa – who is accused of masterminding the atrocities when he served as Mugabe’s right-hand-man as State Security minister – has held a series of consultative meetings with civic groups and traditional chiefs to find common ground on the issue.
But critics doubt the genuineness of his government’s commitment to fully address and account for the killings.
His government has tried to carry out exhumations of the mass graves scattered throughout these provinces, without getting anyone to account for these killings, prompting family members and human rights groups to charge that the government was moving too quickly in an attempt to prevent a more thorough historical accounting.
Organisations like Ibhetshu Likazulu are vehemently opposed to any government involvement in the healing process.
“Under no circumstances should there be any government-controlled exhumations and reburials of Gukurahundi genocide victims,” the group’s coordinator Mbuso Fuzwayo said in a statement.
“Healing and reconciliation cannot start with mass exhumations and reburials, and certainly not if they are conducted by government or those it controls.
Instead, this should come after, among other things, an acknowledgement of the genocide, and release of the Chihambakwe and Dumbutshena commissions’ reports, and be done by an independent body as part of truth- telling.”
The reports Fuzwayo was referring to were prepared by the two commissions set up by the government after public outcry during the massacres in the mid-1980s; reports that the government has kept under lock and key to this day.
Truth And Reconciliation Commission Mooted
In this search for closure, there are some who strongly believe that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, similar to one that was convened in South Africa in the aftermath of Apartheid may bring closure to the victims of Gukurahundi.
However, while this would be ideal, Father Oskar Wermter, a Jesuit priest who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe for more than 50 years understands why Mnangagwa and his colleagues in the government are reluctant to institute such a commission.
He said that those in power “are afraid of the truth coming out.”
“The declarations of intent, of wanting to go back to Gukurahundi, are not honest.
“They will never do it. Not this generation who were responsible,” Father Wermter said.
However, while local efforts are underway, there are those who have no confidence in a process in which some of the perpetrators are returning to the crime scene to lead the healing process.
These would like the international community to investigate the killings.
Piers Pigou, International Crisis Group’s senior consultant for Southern Africa, has also expressed his misgivings about a government-led process.
“I think it is highly unlikely that there would be any meaningful process under this administration,” Pigou told FairPlanet.
Doubt is prevalent
Mxolisi Ncube, a local journalist who has extensively researched the killings doubts that survivors and families of the dead will get closure from the current government-driven process.
“I don’t foresee the Gukurahundi survivors getting any closure or restitution under any Zanu PF government because Zanu PF leaders and members, both individually and as a collective, seem reluctant to own up to the killings,” Ncube told FairPlanet.
“Even some of the former Zapu members who suffered under Gukurahundi seem to have joined in the fray of those who want to hear nothing about Gukurahundi after the 1987 Unity Accord; I don’t know if that is being driven by fear or a new resolve on their part.”
Ncube, however, applauded the move by the Mnangagwa administration to open up debate on this emotive issue.
“Their intentions may not be genuine as other people fear, but through talking and sharing their experiences, through speaking out and unleashing what is in their chests, the survivors may lighten the load on their shoulders and give researchers and advocates a new insight from the hitherto untold stories about Gukurahundi,” he said.
Painful Wounds continue to fester
Throughout the duration of the Gukurahundi massacres and in their aftermath, the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) and the Legal Resources Foundation documented the atrocities and eventually published an explosive report in 1997 entitled Breaking The Silence – Finding True Peace.
“This story is not just about the past, but about how the past affects the present,” the report points out.
“There are many problems that remain in communities as a result of what happened, in particular from the murders and beatings by soldiers.
“Many people can tell stories of how they have failed to get death certificates for those who died, or how such certificates have a false cause of death, which upsets them.”
“Others tell of mass graves or shallow graves in their areas and how this disturbs their communities,” the report further reads.
“Some tell how members of their families were taken at night and have never been seen again.
“Many other individuals have to live with physical injuries, which means they cannot work well in the fields, or travel easily on buses, for example.”
A good 25 years after the publication of the report, these people are still searching for closure without luck.
Ncube said that in the unlikely event that the government process run its full course, these victims that have been waiting for justice for decades don’t know what to expect.
“Will there be restorative justice? Will there be restitution? Will there be prosecution for those known to have partaken in the killings?
“Will there be an apology from Zanu-PF? Will there be a Gukurahundi memorial day?
“Will this lead to the final conclusion of this dark cloud in a way that mends the growing tribal divisions, especially between Ndebeles and Shonas?
“All these are questions that remain unanswered.” – FairPlanet
BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
A Victoria Falls based law firm has donated football kits to twelve Division Two soccer players in Hwange West district in an effort to fight drugs and substance abuse among youths in the communities.
According to the law firm’s director Thulani Nkala, of Dube Nkala & Company Legal Practitioners, the donation aims to promote a healthy society where teenagers can engage in sports even after school.
Division Two falls under the Zimbabwe Football Association and it comes after Division One which is also below the premier league.
“As you are all aware that drugs are causing problems in our town, we felt that we can make a difference to counter this by donating some football kits and other equipment for our youths to use as they play,” Nkala said.
“We hope that this will be an ongoing partnership, but for now we will only be sponsoring for this upcoming season which is about to start and we shall renew as the next seasons approach on condition that we have mutual understanding which is based on respect because we will not want a situation where teams fight each one another.”
He said apart from the kits and trophy, the teams will play for a prize money at the end of the season.
Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) Matabeleland North provincial acting chairman Clevious Ncube said the gesture will go a long way in nurturing young talents in the Division Two league, whom most of them are school going children and teenagers.
Prosper Neshavi, provincial ZIFA board member, lamented lack of interest in football sponsorship even at national level.
He said this has been part of the reasons why the country has been kicked out of the Federation Internationale Football Association (FIFA).
FIFA President Giovanni Infantino last year said the association had to suspend Zimbabwe and Kenya for government interference in the activities of the football associations.
“They know what needs to be done for them to be readmitted or for the suspension to be lifted. “Infantino said last year.
Meanwhile, as part of efforts to introduce sports tourism in Victoria Falls, tourism operators and other sports officials have joined hands to form a committee that will spearhead the allocation of land by the Victoria Falls City Council for sporting activities such as the football, tennis, boxing and rugby among other sporting disciples.
This was revealed by the committee chairperson Mthabisi Ncube who lamented lack of sporting facilities in the city.
He revealed that through their negotiations with the council, a certain portion of land has been set aside for the project.
Their end goal is to see the town hosting local and international teams, which will inturn boost the country’s tourism GDP.
“As we say that we are the tourism capital of Zimbabwe and possibly the better capital of Africa and we fail to have a 10 000 seater stadium,” he said.
“We can not fail to host training matches such as the rugby, football where teams such as the Kaizer Chiefs Football Club can decide to come to Victoria Falls as they prepare ahead of the season, so their coming will help us a lot because all the businesses from accomodation to the salons and vegetable vendors will benefit from their presence, but it cannot happen when we do not have the facilities.
“Our vision is to have a complex where we can host international games, international meetings for cricket, rugby, tennis. We want to be like what Capetown (South Africa) does where they have no free weekend in arts and sporting activities.”
BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI
In the scorching sun, Litha Ncube and her nine-year-old daughter are armed with hoes and shovels as they make way to a dumpsite to scavenge for a precious by-product of coal, coke.
The poverty-stricken widow from Hwange’s Madumabisa Village says she has no option but to scrounge for the product in a life-threatening environment that has claimed the lives of many. This is her only means of survival.
As she digs the dumpsite without any Personal Protective Clothing (PPE) such as the surgical mask, her daughter’s task is to pick and separate the coke from the chaff and fill a 50-kilogramme sack. This quantity of coke fetches US$5, which she says helps to sustain her family.
Her husband died at the height of Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 after he was diagnosed with Tubercolosis (TB) which he contracted due to inhaling of coal dust at the same dumpsite.
Ncube was also diagnosed and it took her over 12 months to fully recover.
“If I stop, who will support my children?” Ncube quizzes as she continues to dig.
Ncube is among the many women in Hwange who have resorted to trespassing into the Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) dumpsite in search of coke, which they resell to make ends meet.
TB is one of the leading causes of death in Zimbabwe.
According to Community Working Group on Health, about 6 300 Zimbabweans die of TB each year despite it being preventable and curable.
The African region has the second-highest tuberculosis burden worldwide, after Southeast Asia. under the World Health Organisation End Tuberculosis Strategy, countries should aim to reduce TB cases by 80% and cut deaths by 90% by 2030 compared with 2015.
According to National Mine Workers Union of Zimbabwe president Kurebwa Javangwe Nomboka, gaseous substances from coal dusts have left many Hwange villagers and residents exposed to TB, although many are not documented.
‘The prevalence of TB is very high, but undocumented in the areas we have done programs which are around the mining community of Hwange,” Nomboka told VicFallsLive.
“Coal is the commonly mined mineral in the area and is well known for its combustible nature and the emission of dangerous poisonous gases.”
Nomboka says apart from residents such as Ncube, the scourge is higher in the mining companies, largely Chinese owned.
He says the mostly affected are underground miners and even those involved in the processing of coal to coking coke.
” Examples of areas with a high risk of TB which my team have visited are HC, Hwange Coal Gasification and South Mining,” he revealed.
“The environment in these mines is heavily embroidered or engulfed with coal dust and gaseous substances which causes a high risk of TB and other related diseases like Pneumoconiosis.”
These heavy dusts and gaseous substances, Nomboka says are also evident in the residential areas and thus posing a risk to the families of miners.
” At Hwange Coal Gasification at times the whole complex is engulfed with gaseous substances to an extent that you won’t even be in a position to see buildings or people around you,”
“Besides the dust and gaseous substances there is immense heat that comes out from the furnaces and the personnel working such under environments are spotted with improper and inadequate PPEs and the issue in these mines has become of lesser priority as it is only acquired when we raise a red flag as a union.”
Nomboka said the PPEs being acquired does not meet the standard required under the Mining industry safety regulations leaving workers vulnerable to contracting TB and other related diseases.
” As a trade union we have reigned in on these defaulting companies to comply with the mining safety regulations and those found not to be in compliance with the regulations have had to be litigated against in order for them to comply,” Nomboka revealed.
“The country needs to adopt stern measures on those who fail to comply with mining safety regulations by enacting laws which provide for hefty fines for companies who fail to provide safety nets for their employees and proper and adequate protective clothing.”
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