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- Written by: Richard Gandari
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Identifying as a member or supporter of ZAPU became a death wish.
Under the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, a caveat was promulgated, outlawing ZAPU and forfeiting all its properties to the state. Some of the properties belonged to ZPRA, the armed wing of ZAPU during the liberation struggle. Being visionaries, ZPRA veterans lawfully purchased a string of valuable properties using funds pooled from their demobilization payouts. The party, ZAPU also invested in movable and immovable properties. Everything was seized and forfeited to the state. Dr Joshua Nkomo was persecuted and hounded into exile. His lieutenants, the late Dr Dumiso Dabengwa and the late Commander Lookout Masuku were thrown into Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on trumped up charges. The rest is history as the adage goes.
Just like in East Germany in 1990, it has been four decades of denial and deafening silence.
As the watershed elections of August 2023 were rigged to maintain the status quo, hopes of a new Zimbabwe remain an elusive dream. ZAPU the corporate victim of Gukurahundi, remains incapacitated. With Mugabe’s caveat frozen in time, the resurging party is struggling to reclaim its purloined glory. As fate would have it, the leader of ZAPU today is none other than Michael Sibangilizwe Nkomo, the very son of the late Dr Joshua Nkomo. One would consider it a golden opportunity for poetic justice but lo and behold, those wielding the levers of power have no desire to allow a new dawn for Zimbabwe. Due to incapacitation, ZAPU could not field its leader for the presidential race. The steep nomination fees demanded by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission made it impossible for ZAPU to effectively participate in the crucial plebiscite.
Unwritten caveats designed to perpetuate Gukurahundi in other subtle and thinly veiled forms
Apart from the continued onslaught against ZAPU there remains a myriad of unwritten caveats designed to perpetuate Gukurahundi in other subtle and thinly veiled forms. Nothing short of regime change can revive hopes for the genuine resolution of Gukurahundi as a de facto genocide.
Whoever emerges as the elected leader of Zimbabwe after unseating ZANU PF, should know that there can never be genuine national healing and cohesion without first addressing the issue of Gukurahundi.
That is the elephant in the room. It can never be wished away. Once the issue is properly resolved then devolution of power should be the next logical step. Our country will know a new birth of freedom. Only then can spaghetti roads and skyscrapers mean something for everyone