Mugabe playing with fire … Moses Mzila Ndlovu
He said this after he and former home affairs minister, Dumiso Dabengwa, travelled to Johannesburg where they watched a play on Gukurahundi staged by a Xhosa drama group, Siphesakhe Youth Organisation in Hillbrow on Saturday.
Mzila said the emergence of the play titled Loyiko (Fear), has “raised hopes†that justice for Gukurahundi can be attained in President Mugabe’s lifetime, adding that it was also an indicator that Harare’s efforts to have the 1980s crime die a natural death were futile.
“Frankly speaking, this development dashes Mugabe and Zanu PF’s hopes that the crimes they committed against the people of Matebeleland will die a natural death.
“Mugabe is playing with fire. I have never heard him say it but his actions show that he wants the issue to be forgotten so that future generations will not know anything about it. But these young people have come up as not just an agent of resistance to Mugabe’e efforts but as walking libraries,†Mzila told Newzimbabwe.com.
He added: “If these young people break into the international stage that will present a permanent problem for Mugabe and his inner circle. The transgenerational and international aspects of this development presents a real threat to Mugabe.â€
The former national healing minister said the play Loyiko showed that the young South African actors did their research and were committed to their project. He said they showed “passion, skill and determination†during the show.
Members of Siphesakhe Youth Organisation have previously reported that when they started researching the Gukurahundi project the Zanu PF government sent state agents who tried to bribe them with thousands of dollars for them to abandon the project.
They said they were told that Gukurahundi was a myth meant to tarnish President Mugabe’s image. The drama group comprises of young Xhosa youngsters whose average age is between 17 to 19 years.
The staging of the drama in South Africa comes soon after Mugabe recently boasted about the 1980s killings threatening to visit the same on the war veterans whom he said were seeking to undermine his authority.
It also comes after Zimbabwean visual artist, Owen Maseko, whose exhibition was banned in Zimbabwe, has broken into the South African market where his Sibathontisele project has reportedly won him fans.
Sibathontisele recaptures the brutality of the Fifth Brigade who went after the civilian population under the pretext of hunting down the dissidents.
Calls for government to compensate the victims of the Gukurahundi have fallen on deaf ears while Mugabe continues to celebrate his crime. Addressing people who had gathered to watch the play in Hillbrow on Saturday, Dabengwa said Mugabe and government’s involvement in the crime was indisputable.
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