By Bulawayo Correspondent

A Bulawayo based pressure group, Ibetshu Likazulu says it will begin the re-erection of memorial plaques for Gukurahundi victims at Bhalagwe in Maphisa, Matebeleland South next month.

Ibetshu likazulu in February this year erected memorial plaques at Bhalagwe in memory of thousands of people killed by the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade in the Midlands and Matebeleland provinces just after independence.

The plaques were however destroyed by unknown people suspected to be State security agents.

In an interview with New Zimbabwe.com Ibetshu Likazulu secretary Mbuso Fuzwayo said his organisation is already mobilising resources for the exercise.

“We are intending to erect new plaques on Heroes’ Day, next month. So far, we are currently mobilising resources for the project. We are also appealing to those who are willing to assist with material like cement, bricks and transport. This is a national cause considering the President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) has openly talked about the atrocities,” said Fuzwayo.

He added that to mark Heroes’ Day this year his organisation will be commemorating people who were killed during the atrocities.

“This year we will commemorate our mothers and fathers who died during Gukurahundi. Every year on Heroes’ Day we always remember those people who were killed by the Rhodesian forces in places like Nyadzonya, Chimoio and Zambia yet we cannot remember our own people who were killed by a black government,” said Fuzwayo.

He also called for the establishment of a Gukurahundi Genocide museum at Balagwe.

The deputy minister of Home Affairs Michael Madiro last month told Parliament that the government has not sanctioned the reburial of Gukurahundi victims despite President Mnangagwa having publicly given his word for this to happen.

Maphisa district bore the brunt of the mass killings by former President Robert Mugabe‘s government committed under the guise of fighting a rebellion that had broken out in the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces. There are mass graves at Bhalagwe in the district where victims were killed and buried at a detention centre.