Hard to solve Gukurahindi because it was caused by a gvt which is still in power and can’t prosecute itself- Rev Motsi

Reverend Ray Motsi says the main problem why it is hard to find closure to the Gukurahindi genocide matter is because it was caused by a government which is still in power.

He says the same government which caused the genocide can not judge and prosecute itself.

“The problem that we face of Gukurahundi was caused by a government which is still in power.

“The same government cannot be the prosecutor, the judge and accused all at the same time, making it difficult to deal with it,” he said in an interview with CiteZw.

The Gukurahundi was a genocide in Zimbabwe which arose in 1982 until the Unity code in 1987.

It derives its name from a Shona language term which loosely translates to “the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains”.

Gukurahundi was part of aftermath of the Rhodesian Bush War.

Although there are different estimates, the consensus of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) is that more than 20,000 people were killed.

It was carried out by the North Korean trained 5th Brigade which was an elite regiment of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

Meanwhile, Rev. Motsi is the co-founder of Grace to Heal in Bulawayo and one of the founders and current Chairperson of Christian Alliance, Chairperson of Our Neighbours Ministry (ONM), Member of the Trustees for the Bulawayo Project Centre, Chairperson of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA) Peace and Justice and Chairperson of EPART.

He obtained his PhD in Conflict Transformation from Pretoria University, South Africa.

He has worked with a number of organisations on peacebuilding and conflict transformation in Africa including teaching at Mindolo Ecumenical and pan-African Studies in Kitwe, Zambia, Peacebuilding in South Sudan among tribal groups and United Nations Summer School in New York.

He has assisted organisations working on trauma healing in Rwanda and Burundi.

From 1990 to 2010, he served as the Senior Pastor at Baptist Church in Bulawayo and from 2009 – 2011 as the President of the Baptist Union of Zimbabwe.

Zwnews