‘International norms should guide Gukurahundi exhumations’
AGROUPING of Matabeleland civic organisations is advocating for a policy guided by international norms to direct the longawaited exhumations of Gukurahundi victims.
The High Court recently threw out an urgent chamber application filed by Zapu, Ibhetshu LikaZulu and Gukurahundi survivor Charles Thomas seeking an interdict barring government’s involvement in the exhumations and reburials.
The Gukurahundi remains a thorny issue with government, civic groups, opposition parties and victims at cross purposes over the direction the exhumations should be conducted.
The Matabeleland Forum said it did not support any reconciliation process that did not recognise principles that promote a victim or community-centred approach, truth-telling and conflict transformation.
“Exhumation of the remains of persons deceased during the Gukurahundi genocide should be guided by a policy framework in accordance with the Constitution and international norms,” the lobby group said.
“Non-State actors should be allowed to present evidence-based reports on the political, social and economic impacts of the Gukurahundi genocide before the relevant parliamentary portfolio committees.”
In 2019, the government was accused of flip-flopping over the issue of exhumations after Home Affairs deputy minister Mike Madiro said they would be postponed until such a time there was a policy on carrying out the exercise.
Madiro’s statement came after President Emmerson Mnangagwa pledged to address the 1980s mass killings by facilitating exhumations and reburials of victims.
He, however, appeared to suggest that exhumations would be deferred when he told parliamentarians that no exhumations would take place until there was a policy, which is yet to be crafted, to guide the process.
“So until such a time that the Commission (National Peace and Reconciliation Commission) finishes its brief, then no one should be able to exhume and rebury — unless it is done according to the law.
“Otherwise at the moment, it cannot be done on a private basis. It has to wait for the commission to do its work and upon reporting then reburials can be done,” Madiro told parliamentarians.
He was responding to a question on whether it was permissible for families of individuals who died during the 1980s disturbances to conduct exhumations and reburials for their slain relatives.