Civic Group Calls For Probe Into 'Gukurahundi-style' Policing In Bulawayo

The Matabeleland Collective, a coalition of Matabeleland based civil society organisations, has called on the government to establish an independent commission to investigate the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s (ZRP) conduct when discharging its duties in Bulawayo.

In a statement on Wednesday, the groups accused ZRP of using Gukurahundi-style policing in Bulawayo. The statement read in part:

Matabeleland Collective renew their request for an investigation into policing in Bulawayo especially in light of the manner in which the police use Gukurahundi style formats to do their work including tribal hatred targeting women and subjecting them to gender insensitive insults.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police cannot continue to stir up trauma by this form of policing in a region still living the pain of Gukurahundi 40 years late.

The civic organisations queried why there was a high number of Bulawayo residents arrested during the current COVID-19 lockdown and the infamous January 2019 fuel hike protests.

Recently, two sisters in their 30s from Cowdray Park, Bulawayo, were seized from a shopping centre, beaten with on their backs, hips, and legs for hours by police officers.

Gukurahundi is a term used to refer to deployment of the military to fight  “dissidents” in Matabeleland and Midlands in the 1980s which resulted in the death of an estimated 20,000 Ndebele people.

More: NewZimbabwe.com