Chronicle Editor
Nqobile Bhebhe – [email protected]
DELEGATES including traditional leaders, Cabinet Ministers and scores of key stakeholders have started trickling in at the State House in Bulawayo for the historic launch of the Gukurahundi victim-centred reconciliation outreach programme in the Matabeleland region.
The event is being held under the theme “Promoting Healing, Peace and Unity Through Community Engagements, Sikhuthaza, ukwelatshwa Kwamamxeba, ukuze kube lokuthula lokubambana ngokuxoxisana”
The Government tasked chiefs with leading the public hearing process and has pledged to provide adequate financial and material resources to ensure the program’s success.
To that end, chiefs have already received equipment such as laptops, recorders, and printers for documenting witness responses.
The historic hearings aim to bring closure to the unrest that occurred in the early 1980s and to foster lasting peace and unity, promoting inclusive national development.
The Gukurahundi community hearings will be held in rural areas and it is expected that the programme will be concluded within three months.
President Mnangagwa initially held meetings with civil society organisations under the banner “Matabeleland Collective” before scaling up the engagements with traditional leaders from the Matabeleland region and Midlands on tackling the Gukurahundi matter.
It was then resolved that the first phase of the Gukurahundi hearings would be held in the Matabeleland region before moving to the Midlands Province. In the past few years, traditional leaders have held a series of meetings with President Mnangagwa as part of measures to address the matter.
Cabinet ministers who include Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere, Local Government and Public Works Danial Garwe, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Kazembe Kazembe, Labour and Social Welfare July Moyo are expected to be in attendance.
Bongani Ndlovu