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- Written by: Richard Gandari, ZAPU National Spokesperson
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22 December 2024
ZAPU marks today as a day of remembering the victims of the Ndebele Genocide (1983-1987) commonly known as Gukurahundi. The Ndebele Genocide is a microcosm of the Jewish Holocaust (1933-1945) and stands a stark reminder of the futility of having independence without freedom. The horrors of Gukurahundi have been documented in various ways but a platform for survivors to speak out openly remains a fleeting mirage. A chief-led Gukurahundi dialogue programme launched by President Mnangagwa in July this year remains on ice, clearly facing the stillbirth that similar window-dressing efforts have faced in the past. Apparently, there is no motivation for self-incrimination.
Political posturing and shedding of crocodile tears remains the government’s default strategy to buy time, hoping that the issue of Gukurahundi will eventually disappear as its victims die. No one outside the highest level of government has ever seen the report from the Dumbutshena Commision of Inquiry, established to investigate the Entumbane skirmishes between November 1980 and March 1981. Similarly, the Chihambakwe Commission of Inquiry established by President Mugabe in 1983 to investigate the massacres of civilians in Matabeleland by the Fifth Brigade issued a report that remains hidden from the public domain. In 2019, the Chairperson of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC), the late Retired High Court judge Selo Nare told the media that the Dumbutshena and Chihambakwe reports had been lost.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Someone somewhere knows of the whereabouts of the “lost” reports. Perpetrators of Gukurahundi by commission are also officially known. The Zimbabwe National Army holds complete records of the list of soldiers deployed as members of the Fifth Brigade under the command of one Colonel ‘Black Jesus’ Perrance Shiri. The perpetrators of Gukurahundi are known and their trail of destruction remains evident in the parts of Matabeleland and Midlands they ravaged. Some victims of Gukurahundi can point at their rapists and torturers now decorated civil servants, diplomats or army top brass. A longer list exists, of Gukurahundi perpetrators by omission – institutions and individuals who watched in silence as the Ndebele Genocide occurred during half a decade of rape, torture and wanton bloodletting.
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- Written by: The Zapu Marketing team
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- Video:
Hi we have something to say! In this Big Conversation - for a Christmas Greeting, as we see the end of 2024
Between Thulani Nkala and Zapu President Michael Sibangilizwe Nkomo- in a Big Conversation about the Visit to South Africa - put together by Matabeleland Broadcasting Corporation
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- Written by: Michael Sibangilizwe Nkomo
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Liberation Context and Evolution
Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) was at the forefront and actively participated in the liberation of our country, Zimbabwe, leading to the 1980 political independence. Shortly after our hard-earned independence a military operation codenamed Gukurahundi was launched via the Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, unleashed by the ZANU-led government of the day, ostensibly to eliminate armed dissidents purportedly working to topple the newly inaugurated government. From January 1982 to December 1987 over 40,000 unarmed civilians were wantonly massacred by the Fifth Brigade with collaboration of other security departments both official and unofficial.
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) [and the International Association of Genocide Scholars] estimated that over 20,000 people lost their lives, but their figure was conservative as it covered one district in Matabeleland North (Tsholotsho) and another in Matabeleland South (Matobo). Midlands Province as a whole was not considered. By all definitions, a genocide was committed by the ZANU-led government of Zimbabwe using primarily the Fifth Brigade which was directly answerable to the then Prime Minister, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and no one else. The Fifth Brigade was created solely for Gukurahundi and disbanded with the signing of the Unity Accord on 22 December, 1987. Members of the Fifth Brigade were integrated into regular army units with many of them posing as gallant veterans of the liberation struggle, promoted and decorated by their Commander-in-Chief.
