Kasukuwere Vows To Resolve Gukurahundi If Elected Zimbabwe's President
Former ZANU-PF political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, has said he is intending to resolve the Gukurahundi if he becomes president.
Gukurahundi refers to a period during which thousands of people from Matabeleland and Midlands were killed by the Fifth Brigade, an elite army unit, between 1982 and 1987.
In his election manifesto, as he seeks to become Zimbabwe’s next president, Kasukuwere has promised a permanent resolution and peaceful closure to the Gukurahundi question, which has been the subject of a raging debate on whether it should be classified as genocide. Kasukuwere’s manifesto talks about reparations and claims his government will make up to R18 billion ($1 billion) available to address the more than three-decade-old issue. Reads the manifesto:
It’s time to reconcile, put our past differences aside, and embrace one another, while acknowledging our failures and repairing the damage that our acts of omission and commission have caused. The Gukurahundi question requires a permanent resolution, and a peaceful closure, as with other past conflicts in our history.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was Mugabe’s state security minister at the time of the Gukurahundi crackdown, has opened channels for dialogue with civil society and communities affected. However, critics claim that not enough has been done and that it has been lip service from the government. Mbuso Fuzwayo, the secretary-general of Ibhetshu LikaZulu, a Gukurahundi research institute said:
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It has been lip service from the government up to this day. There’s no acknowledgement of the wrongs that were done to the people. President Mnangagwa only said the issue should be debated, but beyond that, there’s nothing.
At least, of all political actors in the country, Kasukuwere acknowledges that there was Gukurahundi, and it led to the institutional sidelining of people from Matabeleland.
Kasukuwere is taking advantage of this fault line by offering a third way as a presidential candidate.
Saviour Kasukuwere launched his election manifesto, although Zanu-PF activist Lovedale Mangwana is seeking to disqualify him on the grounds that he had been away from the country for over 18 months.
As the presidential race appears to be a two-horse race between Zanu-PF president Mnangagwa and Nelson Chamisa of Citizens Coalition for Change, Kasukuwere is hoping to present a third way.
