Source: Pressure group celebrates late Zapu hero Ntutha – NewsDay Zimbabwe
BY NIZBERT MOYO
PRESSURE group Ibhetshu LikaZulu has commemorated the life of Zapu stalwart, the late Jini Ntutha who was shot and killed by government forces near his Nyamandlovu home during the Gukurahundi era in 1984.The commemorations were held at the weekend in Bulawayo.
Ntutha, who was Zapu secretary for defence, died at the age of 60 after government forces tracked him on foot for about 4km before shooting him with automatic rifles.
Ibhetshu LikaZulu secretary-general Mbuso Fuzwayo yesterday told Southern Eye that the celebrations of Ntutha’s life was attended by pastors, the academia, war veterans and the youth.
He said the theme was Can There be Healing, Reconciliation Without Truth Telling and Justice?
“Ntutha died in Nyamandlovu while he was on party business to investigate what was happening in the communities. We also want the youth to understand where we are coming from on the issue of Gukurahundi. Chiefs are supposed to lead the reconciliation process, which must also involve the victims,” Fuzwayo said.
“If this process does not speak out on the role of the perpetrator, then it is impossible to have justice.”
An academic, Thandekile Moyo, described Gukurahundi as the senseless massacre of people, adding that there could not be peace and justice when gruesome murders were allowed to happen.
“It is difficult to believe that our relatives that were killed during the Gukurahundi period are resting in peace. We do not even have an idea where some of them are resting, they just disappeared,” she said.
Moyo said the country’s Constitution was succinct on what needed to be done to bring perpetrators to book for crimes against humanity, and to compensate the victims and promote peace and reconciliation.
An estimated 20 000 people were killed during the Gukurahundi genocide that happened in Matabeleland and parts of Midlands in the early 1980s.
The late former President Robert Mugabe refused to publicly apologise, but described the killings as “a moment of madness”.
His successor Emmerson Mnangagwa has pledged to bring closure to the matter, although he has been accused of being one of the perpetrators.
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