THE Dumiso Dabengwa-led Zapu has told Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa to either “shut up” on the emotive Gukurahundi massacres or come clean on his role in the genocide that saw more than 20 000 people in Matabeleland and Midlands being killed in the 1980s.
BY SILAS NKALA
Zapu’s national people’s council made the demand following a meeting held in Bulawayo on Saturday.
In a statement, Zapu said Mnangagwa should either tell the truth about his publicly known role in the Gukurahundi massacres or just keep quiet and enjoy the feeding trough on the gravy train.
“The victims and their families deserve closure on that painful and shameful chapter in the history of this country. Zapu knows that the Zanu PF regime lacks the moral courage to own up to its role in the planning and execution of its massacre of Zimbabwean citizens simply on the basis of their preferred political allegiance,” the statement reads.
“As the government, Zanu PF owes an explanation to the victims, the country and indeed the world at large as to the true motive behind a holocaust similar to the Nazi anti-Semitism, not in scale, but in cruelty and effect. The Zanu PF regime has a legal obligation to release to the public the findings of the CCJP [Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace] and [the Simplicius] Chihambakwe Commission [report].
“We advise Mnangagwa that, should his conscience compel him to talk about Gukurahundi, it should be on the above issues and not some thinly veiled attempts to justify his actions.”
The party said the government should stop its rhetoric and set up a genuinely independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with its numerous human rights abuses.
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“The Zanu PF regime remains the only government to impose internal sanctions and unleash highly-trained murderers [the now disbanded Fifth Brigade] on its own unarmed civilian population. Those people, who now confess losing their sanity, should also ask for forgiveness from their victims,” the statement reads.
MDC legal secretary David Coltart recently stirred up the hornet’s nest in his book The Struggle Continues: 50 Years of Tyranny, where he insinuated that Mnangagwa may have issued inflammatory statements, which fuelled the killings.
But, Mnangagwa reacted angrily to the claims and threatened legal action against Coltart.
