Hon. Speaker, I notice a wide disconnect between the words of the President and what obtains on the ground. What is disheartening is that national healing, peace building and rehabilitation which should be cornerstones to nation building have not been given due recognition and deserved attention. I believe that current approaches to nation building are half hearted, selective and not genuine. They are half hearted Hon. Speaker in that even up to now, the specter of Gukurahundi reigns supreme as victims and survivors still fear its recurrence. It is selective in that while Government seems to prescribe national healing, it also promotes forgetting of the pain that thousands still endure without efforts towards closure. I am not going to just open wounds without proffering solutions because we on this side of the House are ready to govern.
Genuine nation building should open up a national dialogue on Gukurahundi and allow the issue to transcend partisan, ethnic, regional and the racial divide. It should also acknowledge Gukurahundi as a non-deniable part of our legacy shared by all Zimbabweans across the ethnic, racial, regional and political divide.
Hon. Speaker, the abuse of Gukurahundi memory, especially threatening its recurrence should be a punishable offence in this country. As Hon. Members have already indicated, we need to raise awareness on Gukurahundi and other violent episodes in the history of our country, pre- and post-independence. We should teach this at schools so that Zimbabweans collectively ban violence as an instrument of politics or for any agenda for that matter. True, the Ndebele speaking people, especially those that were in ZAPU or those that were in ZIPRA suffered the most, if not, irreparable damage, but the memory and legacy is shared by all Zimbabweans and humanity in general.
Apart from merely setting up a legislative agenda, a young man like me, who wants to see a united Zimbabwe is asking the question, why is Government allowing for reburials without acknowledging in the first place that yes, Gukurahundi occurred. I am aware, through reading newspaper articles that to date, Hon. Vice President Mphoko has donated about 18 000 chicks. I know he is also the Minister responsible for the portfolio of National Healing and Reconciliation and I ask my question; are these chicks reparation for the Gukurahundi atrocities. If they are, is this genuine reparation? If we estimate, about 20 000 people were killed …
HON. M. G. NCUBE: My point of order is in regard to what the Hon. Member has said about Vice President Mphoko. I think he has to be reminded that Vice President Mphoko is a victim of Gukurahundi, not a participant. So, there is no way he can therefore participate in the reparations. I think the statement is seriously misplaced on the part of the Vice President. Thank you.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Member, you may proceed but let us be cautious of what we say.
HON. NDEBELE: I was under the impression that he is doing this in his capacity as Minister of National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, just proceed with your presentation.
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