The decision by the government and Zanu PF to host the main Independence celebrations in Maphisa, Matabeleland South—a district known for having been used as a main camp for the Gukurahundi soldiers—has sparked outrage from sections of the Matabeleland community.
They accused the Zanu PF government of stifling their efforts to remember and pay last respects to the victims buried at the Bhalagwe shrine through the erection of plaques, while simultaneously deciding to stage Independence celebrations in a district where people are not free to memorialise relatives killed by the same government.
The government has announced that the 2026 Independence celebrations will be held in Maphisa, and equipment has been deployed to the venue to upgrade and construct a stadium for the event.
Graders have been seen working on the site.
The government has stated that by the time the celebrations are held, the place will have been upgraded to a good standard and the road leading to the site rehabilitated.
However, sections of the Matabeleland community, including political parties, civic groups, and Gukurahundi survivors, are unhappy about the move.
Mthwakazi Republic Party leader, Mqondisi Moyo, described the move as a “shameful” celebration.
“What the Zanu PF regime intends to stage in Maphisa, a small administrative and commercial centre in Matobo District, barely a few kilometres from Bhalagwe/Antelope Mine, the worst mass-killing site in post-colonial Southern Africa, is nothing short of a national shame,” Moyo said.
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“To gather at a mass grave and call it ‘independence’ is not only immoral, it is satanic.
“It is an insult. It is desecration.
“Whose independence, for what and for whom?
“How does a regime that butchered thousands of innocent civilians dare to dance on their graves?”
Moyo questioned why a government that has refused for 41 years to reveal the identities of those thrown alive into mine shafts now parades itself as a liberator.
“How do Zanu PF officials and their women dancers find it appropriate to gyrate their bottoms and ululate on a burial site soaked in the blood of Mthwakazi’s children?” he said.
“Maphisa is not a carnival ground. Bhalagwe is not a dance floor.
“It is a shrine of unburied souls.
“It is a place crying for solemnity, for cleansing, for truth—not a shameful show of power and mockery.
“Bhalagwe needs cleansing, not celebration.”
Moyo said before any celebration, Bhalagwe must undergo full traditional spiritual cleansing.
He said the spirits of those who were blindfolded, tortured, tied hand and foot, thrown alive into the shafts, buried without names, and denied dignity in life and in death roam that place seeking justice.
“Those spirits will avenge, they will haunt, they will rise against any who dare to desecrate their resting place before the proper rituals are performed, and if Zanu PF chooses to ignore this warning, let them remember,” Moyo said.
“The earth at Bhalagwe does not forget.
“The ancestors do not forget. The spirits do not forgive.”
Ibhetshu likaZulu secretary-general and independent candidate for the Nkulumane by-election, Mbuso Fuzwayo, said it was unfortunate that Independence will be celebrated in a place that is the face of a genocide committed after many sacrifices by people who ended up losing their lives to a Black-led government.
“It will be outsiders in Matopo celebrating the day when locals are scattered all over, looking for either safety away from the government or running away from economic marginalisation,” Fuzwayo said.
“An evil government will never allow its citizens to enjoy their freedom, especially a government that is not promoting equality amongst citizens.
“Locals are denied the right to mourn or remember their people who were forcibly disappeared; even the erection of memorial plaques is destroyed because they want to erase the memory.”
Fuzwayo said locals must ask themselves if the celebration of Independence in their place means they are now seen as part of the family, or if people just want a holiday away from home.
Nkayi Community Parliament speaker, Nkosilathi Ncube, said Mnangagwa must address his Gukurahundi legacy by allowing the bodies of victims to be exhumed.
“A genocide museum should be established to display what happened,” he said.
“This is an opportunity for President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government to apologise to the Ndebeles.
“The scars of this madness will not be bought away....”
“Plaques should be established by the government to acknowledge and honour the dead.
“Communities must be compensated through deliberate and heightened development.”
Ncube said Bhalagwe was the death spot for thousands of victims of Gukurahundi and questioned which independence is being celebrated for such people.
“We have poor roads, schools, no jobs for locals; deployment of people from Mashonaland taking economic opportunities must be looked at before this independence celebration,” he said.
“I advise the locals to advocate for meaningful development in this area, the addressing of Bhalagwe issues, the inclusion of locals in the national cake, and the establishment of a Bhalagwe shrine/declaration of this place as a death spot.”
Gukurahundi survivor, Ben Moyo, said locals do not feel the independence being celebrated, which is why plaques put up at Bhalagwe more than once were destroyed.
“Independence must mean the rule of law. But to date, the perpetrators have not been arrested, just as they acted with impunity,” Moyo said.
“Such arrogance is unparalleled.
“The government must be seen walking the talk and letting the Gukurahundi victims mourn their dead.
“The second republic is no different from the first in that regard.”
Moyo said locals should instead congregate at Bhalagwe in their thousands on that day to send a message to the government that pretense and hypocrisy will not win hearts.
“The government must arrest those who destroyed the plaques to show their contrition over Gukurahundi and their commitment to the rule of law.
“The government must use Independence Day to apologise for Gukurahundi,” he said.
Zapu leader Sibangilizwe Nkomo said Independence was brought by Zapu and Zipra and should be celebrated, but it should be the locals who invite the government to bring the celebrations to their locality.
“We must not allow people to politicise our independence,” Nkomo said.
“It must not be an imposed independence celebration for political purposes.
“We are going to elections in two years’ time; suddenly they say Independence celebrations must go to Maphisa.
“It’s nothing but electioneering.”
He said people are watching what they are doing; they will eat meat at the celebrations, but they know what is wrong.
“Maybe they want to bring their 2030 agenda to Matabeleland, where the struggle for liberation started, but people know what they want,” Nkomo said.
“It is sad that when people want to remember their relatives who were gruesomely killed by Gukurahundi, they are arrested and beaten; it is very wrong,” Nkomo said.
Zapu Bulawayo secretary, Vivian Siziba, said for the people of Matopo, independence became a nightmare.
“They experienced the worst kind of human rights violations ever experienced since WW2’s Jewish massacres in the history of humankind,” Siziba said.
“It is sadistic.
“The regime is mocking them and simply trivializing those massacres.
“They should simply boycott those celebrations as a way of expressing unresolved Gukurahundi massacres.”
