RIOT police yesterday besieged the Bulawayo High Court, where a legal challenge to stop the secretive chiefs-led Gukurahundi hearings was being heard.
Journalists and activists who were following the case, which has again revived focus on the country’s dark past, were barred from entering the High Court by police.
Zapu leader Sibangilizwe Nkomo filed an urgent High Court chamber application after flagging the proposed hearings to find closure to the 1980s massacres in Matabeleland and the Midlands as flawed.
The hearings were expected to start last Thursday, but were delayed due to logistical problems, according to some reports.
Nkomo said the proposed hearings were flawed and meant to erase evidence surrounding the massacres.
Just when Nkomo was about to address the Press and Zapu supporters after the court hearing, police swooped on him saying he was not allowed to do so in the vicinity of the courts. Nkomo later said their bid to stop the hearings was not successful.
“Gukurahundi is a genocide and we are going to continue pursuing peace,” he said.
“It does not matter that today, we did not achieve what we intended to do, to stop the hearings, but we will continue to pursue other measures such as seeking dialogue and audiences with authorities.”
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Zipra Veterans Association spokesperson Buster Magwizi said Gukurahundi could never be swept under the carpet
“As Zipra, we are complaining that the State is refusing to accept that the Gukurahundi issue be addressed properly” Magwizi said.
“That we get harassed and forced to be silent, are we in a war? Why are we being harassed? It appears they are suppressing this issue and they do not want to resolve it.”
In his application, Nkomo said he was challenging a 2019 resolution which authorised traditional leaders to spearhead the hearings.
This followed a meeting between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a group calling itself Matabeleland Collective.
“We are of the firm view that chiefs, and more particularly the National Council of Chiefs, are unlikely to be impartial and unbiased in the conduct of the process and consequently leading to a regressive outcome,” he said.
Nkomo had cited Mnangagwa, Local Government and Public Works minister Daniel Garwe, Chiefs Council president Chief Mtshane Khumalo and the National Chiefs Council as respondents in the case.
He noted that the agreement between the Matabeleland Collective and Mnangagwa had no legal foundation.
“Consequently, we have the legitimacy to politically represent the electorate and the generality of the people of Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, the affected regions,” he said.
Nkomo said closure could never be found through flawed public hearings.
Mnangagwa promised to address the country’s dark past that the late former President Robert Mugabe described as “a moment of madness”.
Mugabe passed on without offering an apology after unleashing the North Korea-trained 5 Brigade to terrorise communities in Matabeleland and Midlands, leaving over 20 000 civilians dead, according to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe.
