Fresh ZANU PF Gukurahundi remarks ‘indicate fear’

by Irene Madongo
19 July 2011

ZANU PF officials are publicly claiming the issue of the Gukurahundi massacres is closed because they fear it will be investigated when Robert Mugabe loses power, ZAPU has said. 87-year old Robert Mugabe is known to be suffering from health problems which could force him to step down or make it impossible for him to win the next election.

The Gukurahundi massacres, which saw an estimated 20,000 people in Matabeleland killed by troops loyal to Mugabe, have been classified as a genocide by Genocide Watch. Last year the organisation called for Mugabe and his army chiefs to be prosecuted for the crimes, which it says deliberately targeted the Ndebeles.

But top ZANU PF officials have been quoted in the state media of late, insisting the matter is closed and attacking those who keep saying the issue must be re-opened.

On Saturday Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa joined in, claiming the private media and leaders of other political parties were trying to damage the country’s economy by opening up the Gukurahundi issue.

He claimed that when Joshua Nkomo and Mugabe signed the unity accord it was a symbol of reconciliation and therefore ZANU PF does not need to re-open the topic. “If we try to open healed wounds by discussing such issues, we will be undermining and failing to recognise the statesmanship exhibited by President Mugabe and his counterpart, Dr Nkomo, when they signed the Unity Accord in 1987,” Mnangagwa said.

ZANU PF’s John Nkomo, who is also the Vice President, recently said Mugabe and the late Joshua Nkomo had met in Bulawayo and concluded that the issue should be a closed one.

However on Tuesday, ZAPU spokesman Methuseli Moyo spoke to SW Radio Africa and said: “People are raising the issue of the Gukurahundi now and there is an indication maybe that the departure of Mugabe or the loss by ZANU PF in the next polls is going to open all opportunities for people who participated in Gukurahundi to be brought to book and people are running scared. That’s why they are coming up with those sorts of explanations.”

Like ZAPU, other political parties such as the MDC-T and Welshman Ncube’s MDC faction are calling for those who committed the crimes to be brought to book and they say the issue is far from closed.

SW Radio Africa correspondent Lionel Saungweme said Mnangagwa was State Security Minister when the massacres were carried out and he is keen to distance himself from them, especially now with a likely exit of Mugabe in the near future. Mnangagwa is understood to be jockeying against Joyce Mujuru to take over from Mugabe.

“It’s at a time when Robert Mugabe is very ill, it’s quite obvious he’s on his way out of power, if not willingly then naturally. Emmerson Mnangagwa is angling himself to take over. But what he needs at the present moment is for Zimbabweans to forget,” he explained. “Mnangagwa was State Security Minister at the time of the Gukurahundi and worked with Perence Shiri. It’s very important for him to try to clear his image ahead of the take over, if it’s ever going to happen.”

Shiri was notorious at the time for being in charge of the operation and the extreme violence he personally used against villagers.

But ZANU PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo confirmed to SW Radio Africa that his party considered the Gukurahundi a closed issue. “We don’t think there’s any need to open wounds and start retributions,” he said. “National healing is part of the GPA.”

He dismissed allegations that key ZANU PF officials are claiming it’s a closed issue in order to save their political careers, saying: “I don’t believe some of those things.”

The issue of the future of ZANU PF big wigs when Mugabe goes, or the party loses in the next elections, was recently raised when the MDC-T said several ZANU PF officials have been approaching them in the last twelve months, trying to build relationships.

MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora said this month: “Quite a number of ZANU PF people at parliament, at government level, and so on, have been making overtures to the MDC with an aim of working together with the progressive forces. People come under the realisation that President Robert Mugabe is not the hope for the future anymore.”