Vusumuzi Dube
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa will on Friday meet traditional leaders drawn from Matabeleland ad Midlands Provinces in Bulawayo to finalise on the commencement of the Gukurahundi hearings outreach program.
The meeting is set to deliberate on a number of issues to do witrh the outreach program including appraising the President on the trainings that have been concluded as well as requesting the President to launch the program
In an interview with Sunday News on Thursday morning, president of the National Council of Chiefs, Chief Mtshane Khumalo said the chiefs will meet with President Mnangagwa tomorrow (Friday) to map a way forward on the program.
“Tomorrow we are meeting President Mnangagwa to appraise him on the progress as well as send an invitation or request for him to launch the program. As he asked us to undertake this program, we also want to ask him to launch it for us as it is a big program. This will also enable us to go to the ground with confidence that indeed the program has commenced,” said Chief Mtshane.
A steering committee of chiefs from Matabeleland and Midlands provinces is meeting today to prepare for tomorrow’s program with President Mnangagwa. Chief Mtshane said this comes at a time the chiefs had completed their trainings and are ready to commence the outreach program.
“As you might know that we completed trainings with Chiefs that are going to go for an outreach program on the Gukurahundi hearings alongside their 14 assistants as well as two secretaries. We agreed on a roadmap towards addressing the Gukurahundi issue and how we would implement it. This will see us going out to the people and hearing how the Gukurahundi affected them and what can be done to address this.
“When we commenced we thought it was going to be an easy task but with the trainings we have gone through over the past two years, we think we are now ready to go to the people and hear what they have to say. We also hope that President Mnangagwa will assist us with the launch of the outreach program. This is because it is a big program and we want the world to know that Government has taken a deliberate stance to bring address the issue,” said Chief Mtshane.
Bongani Ndlovu