A court in Zimbabwe on Tuesday dismissed an attempt by an opposition party to halt government-led inquiries into a massacre from the 1980s that resulted in the deaths of thousands at the hands of elite troops during the lengthy and oppressive regime of former president Robert Mugabe.
The legal challenge to cancel the hearings was initiated by a son of the late Joshua Nkomo, Mugabe’s fierce rival during the Rhodesian war of independence, when Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) emerged to oppose the colonial government.
Supporters of Nkomo were ruthlessly targeted in the Gukurahundi massacre by soldiers trained in North Korea, dispatched by Mugabe to suppress a rebellion. This period of terror included acts of torture and rape.
It is estimated that 20,000 individuals lost their lives in Matabeleland, which was Nkomo’s stronghold and the heart of the Ndebele people.
Sibangilizwe Nkomo, a leader of ZAPU, stated that the party opposes the hearings and instead seeks dialogue with the ruling ZANU-PF.
“We want to stop the process because it cannot be led by the chiefs,” Nkomo told reporters outside the court.
“As a peace-loving organisation, we will continue seeking dialogue. We want an amicable closure to this thing,” he said. “We want justice for the people who were killed, women who were raped.”
The hearings were scheduled to begin last week in various villages, guided by traditional chiefs.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced the hearings one year ago, seemingly as a measure to address long-standing grievances and tensions surrounding the killings in a region that feels overlooked by Harare and the dominant Shona ethnicity.
These inquiries are intended to result in a report that may include recommendations for financial reparations.
