“We are going to get views from different places and hear the issues that concern them. As the chairman one of the issues that we will be concerned with is about what happened in the past such as Gukurahundi and we will give our views as elders to the politicians,” said Prof Gordon Chavhunduka, the interim chairman of the council, which is yet to meet due to cash constraints,
The MDC partners in the hybrid government accuse President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) of dragging its feet on issues of national healing. Zanu (PF) has been reluctant to discuss the sensitive issue of Gukurahundi, in which at least 20 000 civilians lost their lives.
This emotional issue divides the nation and also Parliament along regional lines. Most of the people were killed by the North Korean-trained 5th brigade are from the southern regions of Zimbabwe, mostly of the Ndebele speaking ethnic group.
Chavhunduka said that the Panel of Elders would look at the issues of national healing and reconciliation with the primary objective of achieving lasting peace by advising the government.
“We do not have accommodation of our own, but we are meeting at members’ houses in the meantime. When we get the money we will secure an office and then invite all our elders to meetings and come up with a list of the most topical issues,” he said.
Dismissed by Zanu (PF) as “an MDC initiative to initiate regime change” is composed of Bishop Sebastian Bakare, Rev Goodwill Shana, Prof George Kahari, Prof Rudo Gaidzanwa, Dr Magret Rukuni, Mrs Funny Chirisa, Dr Leonard Kapungu, Retired Colonel Mawire Mutasa, Mrs Ruth Mapisaunga, retired Judge Misheck Cheda, former Education Minister Fay Chung and Chiefs Ndanga and Mutekedza.
Former National University of Science and Technology vice chancellor, Prof Phineas Makhurane, retired medical specialist, Dr Davison Sadza and Roman Catholic priest Fidelis Mukonori are also part of the council that seeks to initiate national healing in deeply divided Zimbabwe.
Post published in: News