Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF Government is making moves to facilitate the exhumations of thousands of victims of the ethnic attrocities which rocked Matabeleland provinces and parts of the Midlands, known as Gukurahundi.
This was revealed by Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage minister Kazembe Kazembe in Bulawayo yesterday.
Minister Kazembe said that the Government has also relaxed registration requirements for the victims of the Gukurahundi ethnic atrocities perpetrated by the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade on mainly the Ndebele-speaking çommunities of southern Zimbabwe.
Most of the Gukurahundi victims were buried in mass and shallow graves and the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) is expected to lead the exhumations and reburials of the victims.
State media reported that the NPRC has since started training provincial peace committees that will engage people leading to public hearings and exhumations.
“On exhumations, work is already in progress with regards to the drafting of the necessary policy framework in consultation with traditional leaders and other stakeholders. A policy document will be drafted to guide the process,” Kazembe told journalists.
“Furthermore, the requirements for one to acquire a birth certificate or national identity card will be relaxed after consultations with relevant stakeholders,” he said.
The Gukurahundi issue has often been likened to a hot potato, tossed from one hand to another with the late former president Robert Mugabe describing it as a ‘moment of madness’.
Current president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was State Security minister in Mugabe’s Government during during the Gukurahundi epoch is on record saying the ethnic attrocities must be publicly discussed for it to be fully resolved.
state media
Additional Reporting: Zwnews
