Shamu rubs salt in Gukurahundi wounds

tified.
To the thousands of survivors and the families of the victims of this appalling era in our history, Shamuyarira’s comments must be like salt in a wound.
The Zanu (PF) government owes the people of Matabeleland and Midlands an apology for the Gukurahundi genocide. It owes the people of Zimbabwe, outside of its top hierarchy and favoured few, an apology for destroying their homes, their livelihoods, their health and their children’s futures.
The fact that Shamuyarira has long been regarded as one of the more level-headed people in Zanu, with whom it was still possible to have a rational discussion, makes his recent utterances even more shocking.
The late Eddison Zvobgo earned himself nationwide acclaim and respect shortly before his death when he publicly apologised to the victims of Gukurahundi and their families, confessing that the memories were giving him sleepless nights. As he was a senior member of the ruling party at the time of his apology, it was deemed that he had apologised on behalf of Zanu (PF).
This was confirmed when Mugabe made a grudging, but public, statement that Gukurahundi had been “a moment of madness” and should not be allowed to happen ever again.
The subject seemed to have been laid to rest – but there was always the outstanding issue of compensation. This has never been addressed. And therefore it will never go away.
It was the thorny issue of compensation that raised its head in Vumba last week that elicited Shamuyarira’s attempted justification of the sending of 5 Brigade into Matabeleland.
The message is clear. Zanu (PF) has robbed Zimbabweans of everything they have and it is not going to share its ill-gotten gains with anybody. Least of all victims of its own lust for absolute power.