BULAWAYO - More than 20 Civic organisations and churches in Bulawayo have formed a new body that will help victims of Gukurahundi atrocities fight for compensation. Hundreds of people in Matabeleland and Midlands were massacred by President Robert Mugabes notorious North Korean trained Fifth Brigade in the 1980s.
The new organisation will be called Gukurahundi Atrocities Redress Coordination Mechanism (GARCOM). It will be responsible for coordinating, advocating and fighting for the
redressing of the sufferings and imbalances created by the atrocities.
“We formed GARCOM after realising that there were some organisations and individuals who were purporting to be representing Gukurahundi victims when in actual fact they were not. Some were even getting money in the name of the victims while the real voiceless majority victims remain marginalised,” said Effie Ncube, the chairperson of the organisation.
Some of the organisations, which are part of GARCOM, are Bulawayo Agenda, Matabeleland
Constitutional Reform Agenda, Zapu, PUMA and Grace to Heal Church Ministries.
Ncube said his organisation was seriously concerned about the silence on the rehabilitation, compensation and assistance that have long been long back been promised to the victims.
“We are deeply concerned by politicians who abuse the victims of the atrocities during election times by promising them compensation and assistance, but do nothing when voted into office. We want the inclusive government through its organ for national healing to address this time bomb
once and for all,” said Ncube.
He added that the people of Matabeleland were saddened that although the previous Zanu (PF) government had long accepted responsibility for the atrocities, no steps had been taken to redress the situation.
“Memories of the atrocities are still fresh in the minds of the people while frustration and anger against the government will remain engulfing the survivors despite the formation of the inclusive government.
The formation of GARCOM comes barely a month after pressure groups in the region lobbied for the barring of the North Korean national soccer team from training in the city because of the memories of Gukurahundi.
It is now uncertain whether the team will still come to train in Zimbabwe in preparation for the World Cup in South Africa in June, following threats of protests by pressure groups in Bulawayo.
Post published in: News