Zimbabwe: Mudenda Tells NPRC to Address Gukurahundi Before the 2023 Election

19 May 2022
New Zimbabwe (London)
By Anna Chibamu

Parliament Speaker, Jacob Mudenda, has urged the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) to speed up the process of addressing Gukurahundi and bringing closure before the 2023 elections.

Mudenda was addressing the NPRC Commissioners during their induction on the role and functions of Parliament.

He informed the commissioners to get in touch with Chief's Council president, Fortune Charumbira, as a matter of urgency to resolve the emotive subject.

In August last year, President Mnangagwa announced that chiefs will take a lead in resolving the issue of Gukurahundi, but not much has been done.

Mudenda said: "Parliament is desirous to see how the NPRC leverages its constitutional mandate vis-à-vis the salutary efforts by the Council of Chiefs, as guided by His Excellency, the President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in bringing closure to the Gukurahundi unfortunate historical antecedent before the 2023 harmonized elections.

"It is axiomatic to note that the Constitution, the NPRC Act, and the NPRC Regulations impose an onerous responsibility in building national consensus, whose bedrock ought to be sustainable human conflict and solution which must emanate from the co-existential culture of tolerance and respect for the other human dignity."

Mudenda urged the NPRC to promptly work on complaints received from the public and take appropriate action or secure appropriate redress without delay, and establish special reports on cases reported than to wait for the annual report.

"The mandate of the NPRC to receive and investigate complaints is also underscored in the Act, wherein NPRC "shall, in regulations, prescribe the general manner in which complaints to it should be made, including the particulars required to be completed in a form specified by the Commission in those regulations". This is and must be the clarion call to national duty by the NPRC. Dare you not fail in this apostolic calling."

More than 20 000 civilians in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces were, in the 1980s, massacred as former president, Robert Mugabe, unleashed violence on ZAPU supporters.

Four decades later, victims have not been compensated and perpetrators walk scot free.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.

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