Shamuyarira under fire over Gukurahundi

Shamuyarira under fire over Gukurahundi

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• Jonathan Maphenduka: Who are the real tribalists

• Geoffrey Nyarota: Making political capital out of a national tragedy

• Kuthula Matshazi: It's not fiction, Ndebeles are marginalised

• Khanyisela Moyo: Ndebele minority needs constitutional protection

• Sam Sipepa Nkomo: A case for provincialisation in Zimbabwe

• Kevin Eagle and Gregory Stanton: Genocide in Zimbabwe

• Lance Guma: Mkhwananzi's mix of sense and non-sense

• George Mkhwananzi: Ndebeles and Zimbabwe national leadership

• Lance Guma: Lessons drenched in blood

• Black murder, white murder

• Dumisani Zifa Ndlovu: 'Mnangagwa has Matabele blood on his hands'

• Mnangagwa, Dabengwa clash over Mat massacres

• Mugabe faces class lawsuit over massacres

• Honour of journalist who first exposed Mat killings

By Staff Reporters

ZANU PF national spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira triggered a political firestorm last night by declaring that President Robert Mugabe and former cabinet minister Edison Zvobgo were wrong to apologise for the 5 Brigade massacres in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands.

Shamuyarira's latest comments came on the same day a privately-owned newspaper, the Standard, carried comments made by Shamuyarira expressing "no regrets" for the massacres perpetrated by a specially-trained army unit called the 5 Brigade, which human rights groups say left 20 000 civilians dead.

Asked if he ever regretted the atrocities, Shamuyarira, who served as Information Minister during the 5 Brigade operation, is reported to have told a conference on national reconciliation in Vumba: "No, I don’t regret. They (5 Brigade) were doing a job to protect the people."

The comments torched off a row with political leaders in Matabeleland where the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade was deployed ostensibly to crush dissidents which President Robert Mugabe said were loyal to his chief political opponent at the time, Joshua Nkomo.

Welshman Mabhena, the former Matabeleland North governor condemned Shamuyarira's utterances which he said demonstrated a denial of the atrocities within Zanu PF.

"Does he have children?" asked Mabhena, "He has no sympathy. While Mugabe said Gukurahundi was a moment of madness, to Shamuyarira Gukurahundi was a moment of soberness."

Last night, Shamuyarira claimed he had been quoted out of context, but still refused to say if he regretted the genocidal killing of civilians during a government operation stretching from 1982 right through to the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987 between Nkomo's PF-Zapu and Mugabe's Zanu.

Shamuyarira told New Zimbabwe.com that President Mugabe and the late former Justice Minister Edison Zvobgo were wrong to openly admit that the 5 Brigade killings were a terrible mistake.

Mugabe has described the massacres as a "moment of madness" that should never be repeated. Zvobgo went a step further by apologising and admitting that the massacres were giving him sleepless nights.

Shamuyarira said Sunday: "The reported comments came from a long discussion that we had (in Vumba), but some of the statements which are quoted are not correct.

"There was a group of people from Matabeleland who spoke from the floor and said they wanted compensation for the victims of Gukurahundi activity in Matabeleland.

"I said if you speak of Gukurahundi killing Ndebeles, you must also include the people who were killed by dissidents in Matabeleland. I gave the example of Gwesela who also killed Shonas in Matabeleland.

"I know of five Shona teachers who were killed in one secondary school at one time, being told to go home and so forth...I was giving those examples."

Asked if he had said he did not regret the atrocities, Shamuyarira replied: "No I did not say anything like that. Some of the things may be out of context."

But pressed further and asked if he had any regrets, Shamuyarira retorted: "That's a situation that we would like to put into history. It's not a fair question to put to me, why should I be answering this 25 years later?

"My personal views are not important in this situation, these things happened 25 years ago, we can only review and assess the past but the personal views of individuals are not relevant."

And does he share President Mugabe and Zvobgo's view that the Matabeleland atrocities were a moment of madness? "I don't share that. No I don't share their view," he said.

Shamuyarira insisted that the victims of the atrocities could get government support if they approached Mugabe in a "non-accusatory manner".

He said: "Mugabe will listen to that and he will respond fairly to an issue that is put not in an accusatory manner but in a manner that seeks to make reconciliation."

A former sergeant in the Zipra army, Max Mnkandla, now the president of the Zimbabwe Liberators’ Peace Initiative said: "That Gukurahundi issue is painful for most of us as it was a merciless struggle by Zanu against defenceless people with no army.

"For him (Shamuyarira) to say that shows he is not only suffering from 1880s hangover — the feeling that the Ndebele also did the same to the Shonas — it also shows that Shamuyarira is now old and should retire."

Mnkandla lost his father, Siqanywana, to the 5 Brigade.

Professor Jonathan Moyo, a former government minister who lost his father to the 5 Brigade on Sunday described Shamuyarira's statements as "tragic".

Moyo, now an independent MP for Tsholotsho, said: "It is very tragic that like many others in the Zanu PF hierarchy who are refusing to learn anything from their dark past, Shamuyarira remains in evil denial about the inescapable fact that only the Zanu PF government and its leadership are liable for the massacre of more than 20 000 people in Matabeleland and midlands provinces where many more lost their livelihood or homes.

"As such, Shamuyarira’s shocking statement amounts to an arrogant confession about his culpability then and now. His comments should be used as a reference point by any future legal body or process that is certain to be set-up in the fullness of time to investigate the Gukurahundi atrocities with a view to permanently healing the still-open wounds of the victims through a number of humanitarian measures including the prosecution of unrepentant Gukurahundi perpetrators."

Participants at the workshop organised by the Centre for Peace Initiatives in Africa, spoke about the agony of the survivors of Gukurahundi, more than 20 years after the event.

To learn more about the atrocities, please visit GUKURAHUNDI.ORG or CLICK HERE to download the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace report

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