Calls for Mphoko to resign over Gukurahundi remarks

By Staff Reporter

HARARE – The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has called on Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko to resign over remarks he made over the weekend suggesting that President Robert Mugabe had nothing to do with the Gukurahundi Massacres.

The state controlled media quoted Mphoko saying the massacres which saw up to 20 000 villagers and opponents of President Mugabe killed in the mid-1980s, was a conspiracy of the UK, US and apartheid-era South Africa who created a “myth”, telling Mugabe’s government that ZAPU rebels “want to overthrow you”.

MDC spokesman Obert Gutu said “It is a notorious fact that from the early to the mid – 1980s, more than 20 000 civilians were massacred in the Midlands and Matebeleland provinces by the North Korean – trained Fifth brigade.

“Pregnant women were bayoneted and thrown into open graves whilst men and women were buried alive in a gruesome manner that would make the savagery and brutality of ISIL, Boko Haram and Al Shabab look like child’s play.”

Gutu said remarks by Mphoko that the massacres were a conspiracy by the West “are therefore in extreme bad taste, insensitive and grossly offensive to both the victims and survivors of this genocide.”

The MDC spokesman said they expected senior leaders like Mphoko to be cautious when making remarks over “this dark phase in our history’s history.”

“The fact of the matter is that the Zanu PF regime led by Robert Mugabe planned and ruthlessly executed the Gukurahundi genocide with devastating and chilling brutality. Indeed, Mugabe is on public record as having referred to Gukurahundi as ” a moment of madness,” Gutu said.

“Victims and survivors of the Gukurahundi genocide should be clearly identified and compensated. In fact, there is a compelling need for a wholesale counselling programme to be instituted for both the survivors and the known perpetrators of the heinous Gukurahundi genocide,” Gutu added.