Ntabazinduna Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni has reiterated that Gukurahundi is a Genocide and those that wish it away and don’t want it to be discussed or solved are wasting their time and are brewing hatred in the nation.
Speaking in a video interview to MIHR on the sidelines of the Gukurahundi 2018 Activity calendar launch in Bulawayo today (20 January 2018) Chief Ndiweni said “this matter is a clear definition and there is no question about it.”
Chief Ndiweni further reiterated that “it serves no purposes whatsoever for either the government of the day or the international community to pretend that Gukurahundi has not happened. We have learnt so tragically from other African countries that if you ignore the people’s cry the only outlet they will have at a future date is a violent one and we don’t want to go that particular route…”
The chief further called on the government and the international community to take the Gukurahundi issue serious if Zimbabwe is to go forward and advised that “those that wish not to discuss it or to bring it to the table they are living on a fool’s paradise as this matter is real, there are survivors and mass graves to prove it.”
Chief Ndiweni is the son to the late Chief Khayisa Ndiweni who in his lifetime openly spoke for Gukurahundi genocide justice.
The Gukurahundi genocide happened in Matabeleland between 1983 – 1987 and was perpetrated by the government sponsored 5th Brigade sectarian army that was trained by the North Koreans in 1981. The brigade committed mass atrocities in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces and the government of Zimbabwe has refused to deal with the issue publicly serve for Robert Mugabe having acknowledged the issue as a ‘moment of madness’ in 1999. The new president OF Zimbabwe is also directly linked to the genocide as there are documented media accounts of him ordering the brigade to exterminate the people of Matabeleland using ‘DDT’ an insecticide. It has been hoped that he will commit to address the issue but since he came to office he has evaded the issue serve to pronounce that ‘let by-gones be by-gones’. President Mnangagwa’s adviser, Chris Mutsvangwa has appeared on BBC saying Gukurahundi is in the history and should not be revived because it is retrogressive.
https://matabelelandinstituteforhumanrights.org/2018/01/20/gukurahundi-is-a-genocide-chief-ndiweni/
(c) 2018 Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights