By A Correspondent- Exiled former Information minister Jonathan Moyo has celebrated the death of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) commander Lieutenant-General Edzai Chimonyo and described him as the “Butcher of Bhalagwe”.

“The curtain has fallen on the Butcher of Bhalagwe, ZNA’s Commander, Gen Edzai Chimonyo, aka Edzai Chanyuka; one of the most cruel Gukurahundi commanders who used to callously boast in public about the 5 Brigade’s atrocities committed under his command in Matabeleland South,” he said in a Twitter post.

Moyo described the late Chimonyo as a “Gukurahundist” who often claimed: “Some call us murderers, but our role is quite clear.”

Chimonyo, at the time of Gukurahundi, deputised the late former Air Force of Zimbabwe commander Perrance Shiri as commander of the notorious 5 Brigade which spearheaded the Gukurahundi massacres in which thousands of people died in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, according to a Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace report.

He was later to take over from current Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga as commander of the Bulawayo-based 1 Bridage, stationed at the heart of the atrocities.