Paul Nyathi

President Emmerson Mnangagwa continues with his futile exercise to try and clean himself of the ills he executed in the Matabeleland region during the eighties Gukurahundi atrocities by engaging a small section of the region which he has cunningly captured for his benefit.

Mnangagwa will today meet his boot-licking group of civil society leaders from Matabeleland under the name Matabeleland Collective at the Bulawayo State House as part of a follow up to previous meetings that have not produced any results.

Major in Mnangagwa’s agenda is to get to a position where he will drag the grouping to agree with him on what he will term a closure of the highly emotive Gukurahundi issue.

He arrived in Bulawayo on Friday evening for the meeting, which is scheduled to take place at Bulawayo State House on Saturday morning.

Mnangagwa has been warned by the region’s opjnion leaders and other stakeholders that the group he is engaging with is not a comprehensive representation of the region and he is fully aware of how compromised the group is but has opted to continue to dialogue with the group in his divisive efforts.

In his last engagement with the group, Mnangagwa tried to get some legitimacy for the meeting by dragging in chiefs and other traditional leaders but he was left with an egg on his face after all the chiefs in the region boycotted the meeting.

ZimEye.com Is reliably informed that Mnangagwa has yet again tried his move by ordering the Ministry of Local Government to force the Chiefs to attend his latest meeting and reports indicate that he is in for yet another rude awakening as most of the chiefs are reported to have agreed to shun the meeting again.

The Chiefs are reportedly demanding for Mnangagwa to allow for the region to first build a comprehensive regional buy in to his engagements than continue to work with the small group of people most of whom are his known loyalists who are funded through his office.

The Chiefs have also told Mnangagwa to first come forward and confess his personal involvement in the Gukurahundi atrocities and give a public apology before he can begin to try and lead towards a closure of the atrocities.

Mnangagwa was the Minister of State Security at the time of the atrocities that saw over 20 000 people murdered by soldiers under his instructions