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Why Gukurahundi will not be forgotten or forgiven
By
Jethro
Mpofu
THERE
is dangerous imaginism and pathetic wishful thinking circulating among
top perpetrators of Gukurahundi who are currently leading Zanu(PF).
The guilty clique imagines and wishes that the genocide that left more than twenty thousand civilians dead in Matabeleland will be forgiven and forgotten, buried under a huge mountain of imagined and false national unity.
This is not only unfortunate, it is also an embarrassing exhibition of naivety coming from experienced politicians.
In this short contribution, I propose to state why the genocide, nicknamed Gukurahundi to conceal its real anatomy and content as mass murder and genocide, will not be forgiven or forgotten either by the victims or by all men and women in the globe who oppose crimes against humanity.
Gukurahundi will not be forgiven because the perpetrators have not apologised or shown any remorse.
Instead, they have displayed arrogance and defensiveness that stinks to high heaven. Recently, Nathan Shamuyarira, a seasoned politician and spokesperson for the ruling clique, indicated that government does not regret the genocide, since it was an operation meant to protect Shona-speaking civilians from the Ndebeles.
Such a defence of the genocide, coming from such a powerful politician in the ruling clique, is clear in its implication that the genocide was an operation that the perpetrators can repeat any time. They have no single measure of regret.
Gukurahundi will not be forgotten because the victims of the genocide are still suffering the effects of the mass human slaughter. In Matabeleland today, there are hundreds of thousands of young people who have failed to attend school or get formal employment, because they have no birth certificates and no national registration cards, as a result of their parents being killed and buried without burial orders and death certificates during the period of the massacres.
These young people have no passports and can never get passports, so they cross the Limpopo river, daily, challenging crocodiles, some of them being killed, as they go seeking general hand employment in South Africa. These victims of the genocide amount to more than two million Zimbabweans, surviving as undeclared economic refugees in South Africa.
There are also men and women from Zipra, the armed wing of Zapu, who today have still not enjoyed the promotions and recognition for their contribution to the liberation struggle. Most senior positions in the army, police and intelligence are occupied by Zanla cadres, most of whom are being rewarded for their contribution to Gukurahundi, rather than to the liberation struggle. These men and women from Zipra are humiliated and frustrated by attempts to erase their contribution to the liberation of Zimbabwe from the history of the country.
Gukurahundi will also not be forgiven or forgotten because it was not a political accident, but a properly planned military incident. A reading of the primitive fourteen page tribal manifesto, authored by the ruling clique, explains how it was planned, how the Ndebele people were to be marginalised and expelled from Zimbabwean mainstream economic and political life.
In Lupane recently, President Mugabe announced that he was “angry” because Lupane was developing at such a slow pace. He made the same remarks earlier last year when he visited Beitbridge, the border town that, despite being the corridor of massive trade between South African and Zimbabwe, bringing in billions of foreign currency, remains a dusty, dirty growth point. It is surprising that Mugabe is only now discovering that development in Matabeleland is moving at a snail’s pace. In fact it is surprising that the President is surprised, since he is the one who has been presiding over the underdevelopment of the region.
In fact, economically
and developmentally speaking, Gukurahundi will not be forgiven or forgotten
in Matabeleland because it still continues to this day. As I write,
the entire population of Bulawayo is faced with a disastrous and life
threatening water shortage. Last year, the city nearly came to a standstill
as residents and industry, including hospitals, ran out of water. Yet,
before every election, the President issues lyrical promises of water
to come from the
Zambezi. It has been promises, and pledge after pledge to develop the
region, but quietly the fourteen page tribal manual is implemented to
the last word.
The economic, social and developmental manifestation of Gukurahundi continues unhindered largely because Matabeleland has no leaders. The region has become a sad political orphanage since the passing away of Zapu. The few former Zapu leaders who are in Zanu PF have been reduced to Robert Mugabe’s prefects; they are there to silence the people on behalf of Mugabe. They conduct themselves like colonial constables, whose brief is to represent Mugabe in Matabeleland, rather than to represent Matabeleland in government.
One of them was actually recorded on Independence Day, 2006, making claims that it is false to say that Matabeleland is underdeveloped. The reason why most of them remain in government only as appointees rather than as elected representatives, is that the people of Matabeleland will not forgive them, or vote for them. Their only reason for remaining in government is “to consolidate the unity accord” and nothing else.
In fact, the so-called
unity accord, which the late Joshua Nkomo entered into to save the lives
of innocent civilians, has been used to blackmail the victims of Gukurahundi
into silence. The perpetrators of the genocide mistake this silence
for peace and calm. The long and many speeches about “our national
unity” and the “peace” that we must preserve at all
costs, are nothing but political gimmicks aimed at calming and silencing
the victims of Gukurahundi,
while the fourteen-page hatred plan is implemented.
It is not surprising that the perpetrators of Gukurahundi are so eloquent and poetic about how “old wounds should not be opened”, and how we should “treasure our national unity”. The victims have been silent and absent. The disciples of the fourteen-page manual are not worried about the economic refugees in South Africa. They are not worried about the thirst and poverty of the victims in Matabeleland, or imbalances in the sharing of the national cake. What they are worried about are “the wounds” which must not be opened.
It is as true in reality as it is in the proverb: “It is the axe that forgets what it has done, but the tree that has been cut does not forget”
It is wishful thinking, and amazing imaginism coming from Zanu PF circles, that Gukurahundi will ever be forgiven or forgotten, hidden like an embarrassing national family secret, and not to be discussed or debated. The truth is that, for the victims, Gukurahundi is not a memory, but sill a present reality, and that the much wanted project of national unity will never get started until a solution to Gukurahundi becomes a reality.
Jethro Mpfou is a Bulawayo-based political activist. Contact him at: zululizayo@yahoo.com
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