Emmerson Mnangagwa is expected to convene a “consensus- building meeting” with Matabeleland traditional leaders soon to co-ordinate and fast-track exhumations and reburials of victims of post-independence civil disturbances that rocked Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands province.

Exhumations and reburials of Gukurahundi victims was one of the key resolutions agreed between Government and Matabeleland civic groups and traditional leaders when they met with the President in March last year.

A follow-up meeting held on February 14 established that progress on implementing last year’s resolutions — which include the issuance of civil documents to surviving children of victims of the disturbances and ceding the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project to locals — was being held up by funding constraints and bureaucracy.

President Mnangagwa, who is following through on his promise to ensure that the country confronts its ugly past, has since undertaken to superintend over the implementation process.

On Friday, Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Kazembe Kazembe led a Government delegation that included Registrar-General Clemence Masango and Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Permanent Secretary Mrs Virginia Mabiza to lay the ground for the commencement of issuance of civil documents to surviving spouses and the victims’ children.

Mrs Mabiza, who is head of secretariat in the engagement and dialogue with Matabeleland civic society organisations, told The Sunday Mail the delegation “shall mostly deal with logistics for providing birth certificates”.

“Most of the issues that are outstanding are to do with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Registrar-General, and that is to do with the issuance of birth and death certificates,” she said.-State media