MOST ex-PF Zapu leaders within Zanu PF say they have not forgiven former Home Affairs minister Enos Nkala for his role in the Gukurahundi atrocities and are not obliged to keep in touch with him — even on his deathbed.
By Nduduzo Tshuma
Nkala on Tuesday said most of his colleagues from Zanu PF had not visited him or checked on his health since he was discharged from hospital more than a month ago.
But former PF Zapu members, who spoke to NewsDay on condition of anonymity, said they had no business visiting Nkala. “Why should we visit Nkala, have you forgotten our history?
“We lost relatives during Gukurahundi. Some of our colleagues were arrested and many people killed,” charged a senior Zanu PF member who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Another senior party member said Nkala should ask President Robert Mugabe and members of the original Zanu why they were not visiting him.
“Has Mugabe visited him? Those are his friends. Isn’t Zanu was formed in his house in Harare?” the official quipped. “If the ones he formed Zanu with are not visiting him, then why should we?” he added.
“I do not see any reason why we should visit Nkala when the people he formed Zanu with do not bother getting in touch with him.”
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The Zanu PF official said even after the Unity Accord was signed in 1987 bringing PF Zapu and Zanu together, “it was not easy to forget some of these things”.
“The scars are still there,” the official said.
Nkala quit Zapu for Zanu in 1963 and is often accused of being behind the Gukurahundi massacres, where an estimated 20 000 people were killed in Matabeleland and the Midlands.
However, Zapu president Dumiso Dabengwa, who spent almost five years in prison during the Gukurahundi atrocities, said he had forgiven those who were in the government during that time, including Nkala.
“I visited him in hospital when he was ill, like I said I know him, to me the scars of that period are still there and painful,” the former Zipra intelligence supremo said. “I have said before that I have forgiven all those who were involved, but I will never forget.”
Dabengwa said though he visited Nkala when he was hospitalised, it did not mean they were friends.
“I have no enemies. I talk to them, even President Robert Mugabe himself. I can talk to him if there is need to discuss anything,” he explained. “If I have time, I will visit Nkala, but it does not mean we are friends.”
