Citizens urged to embrace Gukurahundi engagement programme

Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter 

TRADITIONAL leaders have called on citizens to embrace the Gukurahundi community engagements programme launched by President Mnangagwa on Monday at the State House in Bulawayo.

The launch of the programme paves way for chiefs to conduct public hearings in their respective communities

The event is a culmination of engagements between President Mnangagwa and the traditional leaders from Matabeleland region who were given the mandate to resolve the Gukurahundi issue.

The government is funding the programme having adopted the working manual that the chiefs crafted. Speaking during the launch of the manual on the Gukurahundi community engagement processes by chiefs including a report on their consultative meetings, National Council of Chiefs president Chief Charumbira commended traditional leaders from Matabeleland region for coming up with an inclusive manual which is victim centred.

He lauded President Mnangagwa for his visionary leadership which has seen the country tackling its past head-on.

“The issue of Gukurahundi needs to be openly discussed and even today people feel that the President was very bold. Openly discussing Gukurahundi was not envisaged by the generality of Zimbabweans,” said Chief Charumbira.

“We thank you, your Excellency, for being bold and courageous to make sure that we bring closure to this issue which subverts development because of conflicts or perceptions of conflicts among Zimbabwe.”

Chief Charumbira said one critical component of opening discussions and engaging on the issue of Gukurahundi is the recognition of what happened within communities. He said President Mnangagwa made the right decision by delegating chiefs to handle the issue.

“The process should be community and victim-based. In his wisdom, the President saw it befitting that the whole process is led by the chiefs and supported by headmen and village heads,” said Chief Charumbira.

He said in coming up with the manual guiding chiefs, an inclusive approach was adopted. 

“Some detractors wanted the process to derail, but fortunately we are engaging everyone. We are engaging civil society. Your Excellency, we are not leaving anyone behind even in this exercise,” said Chief Charumbira

“Effectively, the launch means that the traditional leaders should now go to communities and start conducting meetings.”

Chief Charumbira said chiefs are coming up with a home-grown solution to resolve the Gukurahundi issue.

“The process of engaging communities was not developed by consultants telling the chiefs how they should do it. We told them that this is community-based and culture-specific and cannot be designed by an outsider who is not part of the communities,” he said.

National Council of Chiefs deputy president Chief Mtshane Khumalo said resolving the Gukurahundi issue is expected to unite Zimbabweans.

 “Everyone could be watching and probably questioning whether traditional leaders will be able to execute this mammoth task that has been bestowed on them. This mandate has been given to traditional leaders, they are the only ones responsible for ensuring that the programme is a success,” he said.

Chief Mtshane said resolving the issue will lead to national cohesion. 

“Gukurahundi has divided a lot of people depending on their provinces, and if we do this well, we will be able to unite Zimbabweans. For the nation to succeed, its people need to be united,” said Chief Mtshane.

Matabeleland South Council of Chiefs provincial chairman Chief Masendu said it is important for communities to embrace the community engagement programme.

He said the programme is a platform for communities to openly speak about how Gukurahundi affected them.

“This is an important programme to communities as they have been given an opportunity and a right to speak about Gukurahundi. Some of our community members are still nursing emotional pain after losing their loved ones hence this is an opportunity for them to speak out on all the challenges that they encountered,” said Chief Masendu.

 “We will only take forward their recommendations to Government and we will expect Government to take action on what is said by the people based on their own experiences and challenges.”

Chief Masendu commended President Mnangagwa for opening the deliberation on Gukurahundi, affirming his commitment to promoting peace and national healing. “He is a leader who knows what happened and understands that there are things that are persistently boggling their minds. So, he has allowed citizens to speak on Gukurahundi,” he said. 

Article Source: The Chronicle