Former Cabinet Minister and Zanu Pf Political Commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, has pledged to compensate the victims of Gukurahundi should he be elected President.
Kasukuwere, who saw his Presidential bid struck down by the High Court yesterday said the fund would bring relief to those who lost their loved ones during the Gukurahundi massacres.
Gukuruhundi was a state sponsored genocide which resulted in the massacre of more than 20 000 people mostly civilians from the Mathebeleland regions and part of Midlands Province in the early 1980s. The massacres were carried out by the 5th Brigade, a North Korean trained special military unit that was led by the late retired Air Marshal Perence Shiri.
The Government at the time claimed that it was going after “dissidents” it claimed were disaffected ex-Zapu liberation war fighters who wanted to overthrow the Zanu led government of Prime Minister Robert Mugabe.
The most affected people were the Ndebele.
Former President, the late Robert Mugabe described the genocide as “a moment of madness.”
The self exiled Savior Kasukuwere said there was need for an apology to the Ndebele people, who still have fresh wounds due to the matter.
“It is time we put closure to this matter by acknowledging the evils of the past, the mistakes that we made,” he said. We will also have compensation. We have a huge equalisation fund in our manifesto which is aimed at bring up Matabeleland.”
The former Local Government Minister’s Chief Elections Agent, Jacqueline Sande said Gukurahundi was a pertinent issue which Kasukuwere is going to deal with if he is elected.
Addressing journalists in Harare today, Sande said the people of Matabeleland were not happy with the government’s efforts to resolve this matter thus far.
She added that victims had been isolated for far too long .
“At least one billion USD will not only compensate the victims but will make sure the victims have proper documentation such as IDs and birth certificates,” she said.
The Zanu Pf government has set up the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission whose aim is to deal with the Gukurahundi issue among other issues such as previous instances of Political violence.
In a shocking move that seemed contradictory to the ethoes of the body, NPRC Commisioner Obert Gutu said Gukurahundi was a “tiny issue” to be dealt with.
