Bid to block Gukurahundi exhumations fails

BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese has accused activists of slandering President Emmerson Mnangagwa as he dismissed their application seeking to interdict the Zanu PF leader from exhuming and reburying victims of the 1980s mass killings.

Justice Makonese said there was no evidence of government announcing that it would conduct Gukurahundi exhumations and reburials as alleged by the activists who cited the State media as their source.

He said the litigants, Gukurahundi survivor Charles Thomas, Zapu and Ibhetshu LikaZulu, were supposed to verify the media reports before approaching the courts.

“Before concluding, I need to point out that it is not only presumptuous to allege that President Mnangagwa sought to conduct unlawful exhumations. The suggestion by the applicants is fanciful, scurrilous and unjustified,” he said.

The litigants filed an urgent High Court application on August 29 to stop Mnangagwa from undertaking exhumations and reburials of victims of the 1980s massacres.

They alleged that Mnangagwa was complicit in the massacres carried out by the North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade when he was State Security minister.

Justice Makonese said the litigants should have exhausted other remedies such as engaging the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) before approaching the courts.

“One wonders why the first applicant (Charles Thomas) chose to file this urgent application before engaging the sixth respondent (NPRC) when he was well aware of the legal remedies available in the Constitution,” the judge said in his ruling.

Mnangagwa, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage minister Kazembe Kazembe, who were represented by the Attorney-General’s lawyers, were cited as the first and second respondents.

Matabeleland Collective, Jenni Williams, the leader of Matabeleland Collective, NPRC chairperson Sello Nare and the NPRC were cited as the third, fourth, fifth and sixth respondents respectively.

“There is a need to exhaust domestic remedies as provided in section 252(f) of the Constitution. There is, therefore, no need to determine the matter on merits. The preliminary objection is upheld. Accordingly, and in the result, the application is dismissed with cost,” Justice Makonese ruled.

The emotive Gukurahundi issue remains unresolved and divides opinions among several stakeholders.

An estimated 20 000 civilians died at the hands of the military in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces between 1983 and 1987 after the Zanu PF government, led by the late former President Robert Mugabe, accused them of harbouring armed dissidents.