01-07-2025
Zim court dismisses ZAPU's move to block Gukurahundi public hearings
The High Court in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, has dismissed an application by an opposition party seeking to halt the Gukurahundi massacres public hearing.
More than 20 000 people accused of being dissidents fighting the government were killed by soldiers while former president Robert Mugabe was in office.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government initiated public hearings to seek healing and compensation for the victims.
The Bulawayo High Court in Zimbabwe on Tuesday dismissed an application by the opposition party, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), to stop the public hearings into the Gukurahundi massacres.
According to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, more than 20 000 people accused of being dissidents were killed by former president Robert Mugabe's soldiers in the early 1980s.
The massacres took place in Matebeleland, south-west Zimbabwe.
The current government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa had initiated public hearings - to be led by traditional chiefs - to seek healing and compensation for victims.
Mnangagwa was the security minister during the massacres.
On Tuesday, Bulawayo High Court Judge Munamato Mutevedzi dismissed the urgent court application, saying:
ZAPU did not act when they initially felt aggrieved but waited for the day of the public hearings to start and then bring their case before the courts.
The public hearings were supposed to kick off last Thursday but were postponed due to the court application.
ZAPU spokesperson Richard Gandari told News24 that this was a sad judgment and they were working on a way forward.
'As ZAPU, we tend to disagree with the judge that the matter is not urgent. We still have an urgent issue in the spirit of the law, but we will respect this outcome.
'As a matter of principle, we are going to pursue other avenues that are peaceful to get a resolution and get justice for victims of Gukurahundi. So that this issue, which has now spanned several decades, can be resolved once and for all.'
Gandari said he felt the current public hearings would not bring any justice.
'It is our view that the shadowing process being led by traditional chiefs falls far too short when delivering genuine restorative justice for the victims.
'It is also silent on the role played by the perpetrators and making it a one-sided affair which is tantamount to interrogations of survivors of Gukurahundi. We don't believe any healing will come out of these hearings, and part of our urgent court application came from the nature of those hearings.'
A Matabeleland region community-based advocacy group, Ibhetshu Likazulu, which has been calling for compensation for the Gukurahundi massacres, said the court's dismissed disadvantaged victims.
'There are critical issues about these public hearings. First, the issue of media being barred and the issue of privatisation of these Gukurahundi public hearings are about to start. Those are the issues people are complaining about.
'Especially the fact that the perpetrator [the government] is the one who is supposed to be giving people ground rules on what should be done and what should not be done. Will people have access to the final report? Those are the critical issues we need to address as a nation before the public hearing starts,' added the advocacy group's secretary-general, Mbuso Fuzwayo.
Human rights activist Vumani Ndlovu, who is based in Matabeleland, said affected people made it clear the process 'must be driven by themselves and the perpetrator [the government] must not be the one who is telling them what to do'.
Ndlovu added the best solution was to set up an independent commission led by a foreign leader.
'When few people were killed after the 2018 elections, the government constituted a commission that was run and chaired by a foreigner and a highly regarded somebody, Kgalema Motlanthe. Why not do the same with the Gukurahundi issue?'
