Chronicle Editor
President Mnangagwa is on Saturday expected to launch the Gukurahundi community hearings in Bulawayo to signal the start of public hearings to be led by traditional leaders.
A total of 72 chiefs from both Matabeleland North and South provinces will lead the public hearings aimed at bringing closure to the early 1980s disturbances that affected the two provinces and parts of the Midlands province.
The chiefs have since produced the Gukurahundi community hearings manual that will guide how the hearings will be conducted.
The chiefs and the supporting staff have also undergone training on how to conduct the hearings and Government has provided the required resources such as laptops, recorders and printers. Government has urged the media to help resolve and not incite conflict when reporting on the Gukurahundi hearings. It said the media should report responsibly on Gukurahundi to help resolve the post-independence conflict.
Addressing journalists that attended a sensitisation workshop on the Gukurahundi hearings in February this year, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary, Mr Nick Mangwana said the media has a critical role to play whenever a resolution or conflict of the past is being tackled.
President Mnangagwa has said in the past that Zimbabwe should take a leaf from Rwanda’s post-genocide reconciliation model as it embarks on its healing process, which will be kick-started by the public hearings that are expected to be concluded in three months.
Rwanda witnessed the massacre of at least a million people in about 100 days in 1994.
Rwandans every year mourn the genocide victims for 100 days from April 6 to July 4. On April 6, a plane carrying President of Rwanda Juvenal Habyarimana and his counterpart Cyprien Ntaryamira of Burundi, both Hutus, was shot down killing all on board.
The Hutu extremists immediately started well organised mass killings of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The plane was allegedly shot down by the Hutus to provide an excuse for the genocide. Women were beaten, raped, humiliated, abused and ultimately murdered often in sight of family members.
Today, the people of Rwanda who butchered each other using weapons such as machetes, clubs, knobkerries and guns are one united family working to develop their country. Hutus and Tutsis are working together to revive Rwanda’s industries as well as attract foreign direct investment.
Rwanda today is a shining beacon of a united nation that is enjoying the benefits of a shared national vision. It is a fact that Rwanda experienced one of the most horrific ethnic clashes in contemporary world history but managed to successfully bury its painful past.
President Mnangagwa has said what Zimbabwe needs is a strong political will to defeat the merchants of division.
The challenge to the Zimbabwean media is to assist citizens to find each other like what happened in Rwanda. The focus should not be on who did what during the period which has been described as a “moment of madness” but to assist the nation to successfully bury its painful past. Zimbabwe like Rwanda needs to emerge from these Gukurahundi hearings as one united nation with a shared vision to build the Zimbabwe we all want.
This is only possible if the media plays its important role of assisting citizens to find each other as opposed to inciting conflict and retribution. The Office of the President and Cabinet appreciates the important role of the media in this healing process hence it organised a sensitisation workshop ahead of the Gukurahundi hearings.
Online Reporter