Bongani Ncube and Patricia Baleni have carried the sorrow of losing their fathers in the Matabeleland massacre in the 1980s for over 40 years. However, they are sceptical that the village-level hearings initiated by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in July will provide closure.
Ncube was just three years old when his father was shot by soldiers near their home in Matabeleland North province in 1983, the same year when then prime minister Robert Mugabe dispatched troops to suppress dissent in the ethnic Ndebele heartland.
Mugabe alleged that Joshua Nkomo, his former ally in the struggle against white rule who garnered significant support from Matabeleland, was conspiring against him.
Ncube’s father, a government veterinary worker and local leader of Nkomo’s ZAPU party was targeted by the red-beret unit deployed by Mugabe, who was the head of the mostly Shona ZANU party.
Baleni last saw her father, a school teacher, in 1983 at the age of 19, when armed men forcibly took him from their home in Midlands during the night, she informed AFP.
Relatives, fellow teachers, and students searched the bush but failed to locate Clement Baleni, who was not known to be politically involved. The family fled the area in fear, leaving their belongings and livestock behind.
Although an exact death toll has not been confirmed, it is estimated that Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade, trained by North Korean instructors, may have killed up to 20,000 people between 1983 and 1987.
Civilians suffered torture, rape, and forced displacement from their homes in an operation known as Gukurahundi. This Shona term loosely translates to “the early rain that washes away the chaff”.
Previous government efforts to address the killings have been ineffective. The conclusions of two commissions of inquiry established by Mugabe in the 1980s have never been disclosed.
The government has not officially apologised, and Mugabe never admitted responsibility before he died in 2019.
“To ensure transparency and demonstrate sincerity, such a process should prioritise survivors and not be led by the state, as some of the individuals were heavily implicated in the massacres,” he informed AFP.
Many doubt Mnangagwa’s sincerity in introducing the new initiative. He has been president since 2017 and was the national security minister at the time.
Arthur Chikerema, a conflict resolution lecturer at Midlands State University, suggested that Mnangagwa may aim to enhance his legacy and that the announcement of hearings may be more “strategic than considerate”.
It has not been specified whether the process will lead to justice or compensation, “both desirable components of reconciliation,” he remarked.
On the other hand, a coalition of human rights organizations views this new effort to address Gukurahundi as an “admirable cause”.
“In transitional justice, there is a principle known as ‘working with the grain,’ which means that even if a process is flawed, it serves as a foundation that can be developed upon,” said National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG) coordinator, Fortune Kuhudzebwe.