High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi has dismissed an application by the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) which sought to stop the chiefs-led Gukurahundi community outreach hearings.

ZAPU had filed an urgent chamber application complaining that the hearings set to begin Tuesday were unlawful and unconstitutional.

Earlier this year, ZAPU encouraged survivors to avoid exposing themselves to possible retribution by the state through certain utterances during the hearings.

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In the present application, ZAPU said the National Council of Chiefs was unlikely to be impartial.

ZAPU sought an interim interdict to halt the hearings pending a final court ruling.

ZAPU also proposed an alternative process involving an independent commission.

It argued that the current initiative protects perpetrators and fails to deliver justice.

In dismissing the application, Justice Mutevedzi said, "ZAPU did not act when they initially felt agrieved but waited for the day of the hearings to start and then bring their case to court".

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Local Government and Public Works minister and the National Council of Chiefs were cited as respondents in the application.

Over 20,000 civilians were killed by a crack military unit known as the Fifth Brigade, deployed by Mugabe between 1980 and 1987 under the guise of putting down an insurrection in the western parts of the country.

However, some argue the campaign was aimed at hunting down the opposition Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo's supporters.

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