The remarks follow Mugabe’s statements at a rally in Hwange last week where he accused Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa and Ncube of being tribalistic by forming the coalition on the basis of their Ndebele speaking background.
Shepherd Ndlovu, the Zapu Organising Secretary told this reporter on the side-lines of the coalition’s joint rally at Maboleni shopping center in the district at the weekend that Mugabe was not sincere with the accusations considering his background of having orchestrated the Gukurahundi massacres which claimed 20,000 lives in Matabeleland and parts of Midlands. Ndlovu said the people to whom Mugabe was making the claims to in Matabeleland North, needed his apology for the massacres more than the divisive statements on tribalism.
“Simba Makoni (MKD leader) and MDC-T’s Morgan Tsvangirai made their own coalition with other parties but we never heard Mugabe saying anything. Now that a coalition from Matabeleland has been made, he then starts speaking about tribalism. Zapu and MDC are championing unity and not tribalism. That is why our parties have more people from Mashonaland than Matabeleland in their standing committees,” said Ndlovu.
Dabengwa who is also an ex-intelligence supremo and former cabinet minister, is on record for urging Mugabe to champion development in Matabeleland and ensure healing for the Gukurahundi survivors by making a public apology for the mini-genocide as the first step. Though Mugabe has acknowledged the massacres that took place in the early 80s, he has refused to apologise.
Post published in: News