This reminder comes as the world celebrated Mother’s Day on 11 May, honouring the sacrifices and love of mothers.
However, for Ibhetshu LikaZulu, the day also brought back devastating memories of how “innocent” women, daughters, and sisters, were slaughtered in a “calculated act of extermination”.
The 1983 massacre in Emkhonyeni stands as one of the most brutal episodes of the Gukurahundi genocide, where an estimated 20 000 civilians were killed by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade between 1983 and 1987.
The 21 women were reportedly locked in a hut and set ablaze.
Ibhetshu LikaZulu’s Secretary-General, Mbuso Fuzwayo said these women were Sikhangezile Msipha, Deliwe Ndlovu, Concilia Ncube, Sikhathele Ndlovu, Masalu Ndlovu, Senzeni Sibanda, Betty Sibanda, Singatsho Sibanda, Musa Ncube, Elitha Ngwane, Eva Tshuma, and others, who he lamented remain largely absent from Zimbabwe’s official history.
In a statement released on May 11, Fuzwayo, said the commemoration of Mother’s Day must also confront Zimbabwe’s unresolved history of state-sponsored violence, particularly the atrocities committed against women during the Gukurahundi era.
“On this Mother’s Day, Ibhetshu LikaZulu extends heartfelt solidarity and reverence to all mothers in Zimbabwe and across the world,” Fuzwayo said.
“Today, we celebrate the courage, resilience, and unwavering love of mothers who continue to defy all odds to nurture, protect, and provide for their children and families, often under dire circumstances shaped by Zimbabwe’s ongoing economic collapse, a direct result of decades of misrule by the Zanu PF regime.”
He painted a grim picture of the daily struggles Zimbabwean women endure daily while condemning the state’s refusal to acknowledge past atrocities.
“In the face of spiraling inflation, joblessness, and systemic neglect, Zimbabwean mothers stand as the last line of defense against hunger, despair, and family disintegration. They are the ones who wake before dawn, search for food, fetch water from distant boreholes, endure humiliations at hospitals with no medication and walk long distances so their children might learn,” he said. “These women embody the spirit of sacrifice and dignity amidst a monstrous economy that continues to punish the innocent and reward the corrupt.”
Turning to the 21 women, Fuzwayo said “their only ‘crime’ was the potential to give birth to more of those whom the regime sought to annihilate.”
“This calculated and evil act, setting women alight, was not only a gross violation of human rights but a spiritual and generational wound. It robbed children of their mothers. It condemned survivors to lifetimes of unhealed trauma. It created orphans not only in body but in soul,” he said.
Despite decades passing, no official memorial exists, no perpetrator has been prosecuted, and the government’s approach to reconciliation has been widely criticised as superficial.
“This atrocity, one among countless others committed during the Gukurahundi genocide, remains unacknowledged by the very government that carried it out. There has been no remorse. No memorialisation. No justice,” Fuzwayo lamented.
“Instead, we witness attempts to sanitise the past through choreographed ‘reconciliation’ processes that serve only the political elite, while survivors are re-traumatized and excluded. These are side shows. These are spectacles of deceit. They are profiteering ventures cloaked in the language of peace, while the truth lies buried, both literally and metaphorically, in shallow graves and silenced testimonies.”
On Mother’s Day, Ibhetshu LikaZulu did not merely call for remembrance, but for tangible action.
“We demand: A full and public acknowledgment of the Emkhonyeni massacre and all Gukurahundi atrocities; A survivor-centered truth-telling and reconciliation process, independent of government manipulation; Justice for the families of the victims and Memorialisation of the women who died, whose names and stories must be etched into the national conscience.”
Fuzwayo concluded with a rallying cry for truth and justice.
“Let this day not pass as mere sentiment. Let it be a rallying cry for justice, dignity, and remembrance. We honour not only the nurturing hands of mothers but the blood of the fallen. We will not forget. We will not be silenced,” he said.