Commonly referred to as the Gukurahundi atrocities, the genocide left over 20 000 civilians dead as then Prime Minister and now President Robert Mugabe’s government unleashed a crack military unit on the western regions of the country.
Former Vice-President and widow to the late general Joice Mujuru has been on record claiming her husband, who died in an inexplicable inferno at his farm in August 2011, had nothing to do with the atrocities.
“On February 11, 1983, army Commander Nhongo [Mujuru’s nume-de-guerre] tells senior commanders of plans under consideration by government to purge army of 7 000 to 10 000 former Zapu guerrillas,” the report claims.
Zapu was then lead by the late Joshua Nkomo, who was cowed into submission before he went on to become Mugabe’s deputy in the aftermath of the purges.
Mugabe let loose the 5th Brigade under the guise of hunting down a handful of ex-Zapu dissidents, but the report argues that the Zanu PF leader could have used this as a ruse in pursuit of a one party state.
Joice claimed in an interview last year that her husband had been out of the country and Mugabe was forced to recall the army boss as the atrocities got out of hand.
“Solomon was a people’s person. He was their soldier, their commander, their hero. He worked hard to bring together Zipra and Zanla during the liberation struggle.
“It is also for the same reason that he had to be called back from Pakistan, where he was attending a military course when Gukurahundi started. He had to be called back to try to find ways of ending the fighting that had started in his absence,” she said.
Joice now leader of opposition party, Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) through her spokesperson Gift Nyandoro insisted Mujuru did not have a hand in Gukurahundi that Mugabe has characterised as a moment of madness.
“The issue of Gukurahundi, its implementation and perpetration had nothing to do with the late Retired General Mujuru. It is a matter of public record that the 5th Brigade was directly under the control of the man responsible for running down our country today and that is the authority of Mugabe,” he told NewsDay Weekender.
“Such unfortunate allegations by a so-called CIA report that are being released now, ought to have been made public when he was alive. The publication of that report only leaves us with questions given that the General cannot respond and more-so that he died in very mysterious circumstances.”
Nyandoro argued that, while Mujuru was army commander, he had a boss.
“The report is meant to protect those guilty of the most heinous crime this country may ever see. Unless someone wants to tell us that Mujuru was the Commander-In-Chief of the army. If not, then the person who was boss needs to own up and take the fall for those atrocities. The buck stops with Mugabe. He was the final voice,” Joice’s spokesperson said. – Newsday
You are a fool.
The issue should be; is it true or not?
Not how the CIA got their hands onto the information.
You are inhumane. Your question is irrelevant!!
As a Shona myself, I feel bad, because we have Mugabe, who is also Shona like myself and his Gukurahundi that was also Shona, admitting that gukurahundi was a moment of madness. Yet we have some among us, the Shona people continuing to justify it.
How do you justify something that the chief architect is regretting?
He admitted because he had achieved what he wanted; destroying ZAPU.
President Mugabe admitted to his “moment of madness” but has never done anything to compensate the victims of his madness or dismantle the dictatorship – the child of the madness.
“Such unfortunate allegations by a so-called CIA report that are being released now, ought to have been made public when he was alive. The publication of that report only leaves us with questions given that the General cannot respond and more-so that he died in very mysterious circumstances,” commented Joice Mujuru’s spin doctor, Nyandoro.
Gukurahundi is a serious issue that has not been dealt with honestly and openly; it was a big mistake that the wound has been allowed to fester all these years and it would be folly to sweep the whole business under the carpet under the pretext that some of those involved are dead and therefore cannot answer for themselves. The late General had ample opportunity to stop the madness or, at least, explain why he failed to do so. Instead, he chose to spend most of his time looting and spending his loot instead.
As for the General dying “in very mysterious circumstances”; that is totally irrelevant as it neither proves he did not do what the CIA report alleges nor make him untouchable. In many ways, the many mysterious deaths surround Zanu PF leaders is itself an indictment of the regime’s total disregard of the sanctity of human life which is at the heart of the Gukurahundi massacre. Therefore that the murderous regime should turn on some of its own people is no surprise.
For record sake! Judy Todd, daughter to Garfield Todd, has an interesting story to tell about her rape by Agrippah Mutambara following her disclosure to Rex Nhongo about the evidence she had concerning the atrocities being committed by the blood thirsty red berets.Rex Nhongo instead colluded with Mutambara to have her raped as a way of threat and silencing her.
Sorry maningi, go ask Judy Todd what Solomon Mujuru or Rex Nhongo did or said to her when she told him about the Gukurahundi eadingto her ape by Agrippah Mutambara now in Joice Mujuru`s party. Of course we all know Joice was lying through her perforated fangs in defence of her equally evil husband – alikho elazikhotha emhlane!
and Morgan is cushing up to her and not the Coalitiion what a sad state of affairs
How did the CIA gather all this information?
Yeaah, I think I remember mistily as a kid listening to Mugabe on tv or radio in his speeches where he continuously mentioned something to do with a one party state. He was obsessed with the formation of a one party state modelled on the system in the then USSR or china, so logic has it that a systematic purge was unavoidable to achieve that, modeled on for example, Stalin’s purges after the Bolshevic revolution.
Some of us have always argued that these so-called dissidents were created by ZANU. Now what more proof do people want? Why were those former ZIPRA boys targeted for purging from the ZNA?
Nkomo argued several times ZNA was now an integrated army which was now the responsibility of the Commander in Chief. ZIPRA had long ceased to exist. So, he couldnt be made responsible fir what was happening innthe army.
ZANU needed an excuse to mount a military operation against ZAPU, so as to destroy it and set up a one party state. This is why these dissidents were so few and disorganised. They had no proper command structure, as was the case with UNITA under Jonas Savimbi and Dhlakama’s rebel outfit in Mozambique.
ZANU tried hard to pin the ZAPU leadership to these renegades, but failed spectacularly to prove their case in the Courts of law, hence they resorted to extra judicial measures in the form of the State of emergency. And despite raiding ZAPU offices and properties on numerous ocassions through out the country – they simply couldnt produce the evidence.
The could not produce any document or minutes of meetings or recordings that could link ZAPU or prove their planning of dissident activities. But they nevertheless proceeded with their Gukurahundi mission in Mthwakazi.
Today they are all busy pointing fingers at each other. Yes indeed; the chickens have come home to roost!!
Sebamtshila umtshaza obhurur bakhe
Unfortunately many Germans were prosecuted for crimes in the second world war that claimed to be under a boss. Mujuru could have done more to save those murders. The whole ZaNUPF government should own up for their involvement “in a moment of madness”