The last two years have seen the advent of parties like the Mthwakazi Liberation Front and the Mthwakazi National Party, which are trying to dovetail the people of Matabeleland into a force for the separation of the western region from the rest of Zimbabwe.
However, Moyo told The Zimbabwean that what proponents of the so-called Mthwakazi nation stood for was not representative of what the people of Matabeleland and the Midlands wanted.
“Their agenda is clearly not the agenda of the people of Matabeleland because the people are still suffering scars of the Gukurahundi atrocities and do not want to go back there,” said Moyo, who comes from Matobo, Matabeleland South.
“People who suffered during Gukurahundi want to see justice being done and all those who were responsible for Gukurahundi dealt with within the laws of the land. They also want peace and unity, not a recurrence of what happened to them in the past.” Moyo, among leaders in the region to be singled out for abuse by members of the tribally-inclined MLF, said he did not owe anyone an apology for not taking the secessionist side.
“I saw Gukurahundi first-hand. I was not informed by some documentary or oral tradition like most of these people. I saw and experienced what it was like and suffered like many other people, but I am a national leader, not a regional leader and would not partake in leading people astray like what some are doing,” he said.
Moyo admitted there was a need for people of every region and tribe to maintain their cultural and traditional values and benefit from their local resources, but he said this could best be done through devolution of power, which his party fully supported and fought for.
“We cannot however, do that through tribal politics that tells people to hate all Shonas and Shona-led parties without telling them how it will solve their existing problems,” he added.
Post published in: News