TRADITIONAL leaders appointed to spearhead Gukurahundi public hearings have revealed that the government is ready to compensate victims.
The public hearings into the Gukurahundi massacres are expected to start on June 26 after stalling for more than four years. Addressing journalists in Bulawayo on Sunday, the traditional leaders said they were on course to conduct the exercise.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa launched the outreach programme at the State House in Bulawayo last year, but the exercise did not take off due to lack of an operational budget.
The exercise seeks to find reconciliation and closure to the 1980s mass killings in the Midlands and Matabeleland regions.
According to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, more than 20 000 innocent people were massacred by the North Korea-trained 5 Brigade military unit deployed by the late former President Robert Mugabe to track alleged dissidents. Speaking on behalf of the president of the Chiefs' Council, Zimbabwe Chief Mtshane Khumalo, deputy president Chief Fortune Charumbira said the government was ready to compensate the victims of the 1980s massacres.
“For over four years, we have been preparing to go to communities so that we hear from them. We started with the awareness programme on May 27.
“People were addressed in their communities to make them aware of this issue and allow them to make submissions through their chief.
“In cases where it is seen that it requires compensation, the government is ready to compensate. That is why we encourage people who suffered some loss during Gukurahundi to come forward and approach their chiefs.”
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Charumbira said the traditional leaders would adopt a victim-centred approach.
“It is not a public hearing because of the sensitivity and private nature of some of the narrations that may come out, which cannot be shared in public.
“Let the victim invite one or two members of the family during the hearings, each victim will have their own time. The hearings are starting on June 26.”
He said: “The steering committees have discussed mainly logistics and we have met all the chiefs from Matabeleland and were given the opportunity to report on the outcomes of the programmes in their areas. Any issues that needed to be addressed have been addressed.”
He said the traditional leaders would be supported by a panel of 13 people to hear from the victims, with the chief as the presiding officer, who had already appointed elders in the community to be part of the committee.
Charumbira said the chiefs had also brought in religious leaders from within the communities, adding that all genders would be represented.
He also underscored the need to include the youth, saying that as the chiefs, they are building peace for the future.
“The National Council of Chiefs has endorsed the whole programme. Ideally, the programme should not take more than six months, but the number of victims may differ from chief to chief.
“We do not want external minds considering our culture; everything is done according to the values and traditions of that particular chieftainship,” Charumbira said.
