THE remains of a Gukurahundi victim Bakhethi “Manyela” Ndlovu that were recently discovered in a cave in the Mtshabezi area of Gwanda 30 years after his disappearance were buried on Saturday in the Sikithi village under Chief Mathe. MTHANDAZO NYONI OWN CORRESPONDENT
Ndlovu’s remains were located with the help of trauma counselling organisation Kuthula.
According to his son, Grey Ndlovu (67), his father went missing in 1984 after he was seized by soldiers from the North Korea-trained Five Brigade that were accused of perpetrating the alleged ethnic cleansing.
“Soldiers came to our homestead and started beating him and then ordered him to come and see them at the Sofa area,” he said.
“He woke up early in the next morning and went to Sofa and that was the last time we saw him.
“We tried to locate him to no avail until this year when his bones were discovered stacked in one of the caves in Mtshabezi. At least we have now found closure by burying his remains.”
A Kuthula counsellor Nicholas Ndlovu said Bakhethi’s remains were first discovered by a Gwanda family that was also looking for the remains of their father.
“We were then approached by Bakhethi’s family that informed us that their father also went missing during Gukurahundi. We did DNA tests and results were positive,” he said.
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Hundreds of people from Dula, Sikithi, Sotshe and Silobi gathered at the Ndlovu homestead to witness the reburial, which they said was the first of its kind in the village.
Speakers described Bakhethi as a loving and peaceful man whose murder was unjust. Sikithi village head Ben Ndlovu said he was disturbed by the entire episode.
“I am disturbed and I do not know what to do, but God knows what happened,” he said holding back tears.
Villagers said there were a number of people that went missing during the dark days of Gukurahundi and their remains should be found for them to be accorded decent burials.
Bakhethi was born in 1920 and disappeared in 1984 at the age of 64.
At the time of his disappearance, he had three wives, 17 children and 73 grandchildren. Two of his wives have since died and only Langelihle Sibanda remains.
Analysts estimate that more than 20 000 Ndebeles were killed in Matabeleland and some parts of the Midlands province in the early 1980s when President Robert Mugabe unleashed the crack military unit to ostensibly crush an alleged rebellion by former Zipra combatants.
A report by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace revealed that some of the victims were buried alive while some pregnant women had their wombs ripped open by the soldiers, who claimed they were carrying future dissidents in their wombs.
Mugabe has remained mum on the atrocities and only described the period as a “moment of madness”.
