By a Correspondent
NATIONAL Council of Chiefs president Chief Fortune Charumbira has commended President Emmerson Mnangagwa for leading a process towards delivering closure on the Gukurahundi issue.
Speaking during a community engagement programme for Gukurahundi launched by President Mnangagwa at the State House in Bulawayo on Monday, Chief Charumbira said President Mnangagwa’s visionary leadership has seen the country tackling its troubled past.
“The issue of Gukurahundi needs to be openly discussed and even today people feel that the President was very bold. Openly discussing Gukurahundi was not envisaged by the generality of Zimbabweans.
“We thank you, your Excellency, for being bold and courageous to make sure that we bring closure to this issue which subverts development because of conflicts or perceptions of conflicts among Zimbabwe,” said Chief Charumbira.
“The process should be community and victim-based. In his wisdom, the President saw it befitting that the whole process is led by the chiefs and supported by headmen and village heads.”
Chief Charumbira said the process was designed to come up with a homegrown solution to Gukurahundi.
“Some detractors wanted the process to derail, but fortunately we are engaging everyone. We are engaging civil society. Your Excellency, we are not leaving anyone behind even in this exercise,” he said.
“Effectively, the launch means that the traditional leaders should now go to communities and start conducting meetings. The process of engaging communities was not developed by consultants telling the chiefs how they should do it. We told them that this is community-based and culture-specific and cannot be designed by an outsider who is not part of the communities,” he said.
