‘NPRC’s Gukurahundi probe useless

By Tendai Madhomu

National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) is not capable of addressing the Gukurahundi question, Mthawakazi Republic Party (MRP) has said.

In a statement, MRP president Mqondisi Moyo said if the NPRC was credible, it could have been engaged in probing the violence that occurred in Harare on August 1, in the aftermath of last year’s July harmonised elections.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa instead appointed a seven-member commission of inquiry that included foreigners and was chaired by former South African president, Kgalema Motlanthe.
During its visit to Bulawayo last October, the Motlanthe Commission, however, came face to face with angry elements in the region who demanded answers about the silence on the Gukurahundi genocide which saw the death of over 20 000 civilians in the 1980s.

The NPRC recently announced its intentions to begin compiling information on the actual occurrences during the Gukurahundi era.
The MRP leader, however, warned that attempts by the NPRC to delve into the Gukurahundi genocide before dealing with institutional tribalism in the country would be fiercely resisted by all progressive Matabeleland forces.

Moyo said the findings of the highly-hyped Chihambakwe and Dumbutshena commissions on the Gukurahundi genocide during the former president Robert Mugabe’s reign had remained concealed; hence there was a need for an independent commission involving foreigners.

“We continue to demand a neutral international Commission of Inquiry into Gukurahundi Genocide because there was a foreign element in the commission of this crime against humanity.
“Such a Commission must be able to unpack the involvement or lack of it, of the British government under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher,” said Moyo.

Last month, one of the NPRC commissioners, Leslie Ncube told the Daily News the NPRC would from this month start to gather as much information about the Gukurahundi disturbances as part of the building blocks towards national healing.

He encouraged affected communities to engage truthfully and to co-operate fully with the commission. DailyNews