President Mnangagwa in Bulawayo to meet Council of Chiefs

August 20, 2021

Hosia Mviringi

President Emmerson Mnangagwa will host a crucial meeting with the Council of Chiefs at Bulawayo State House today Saturday, August 21, 2021.

The President is expected to receive recommendations from the Council of Chiefs on how best to handle some of the most emotive national issues such as Gukurahundi.

To show his commitment to finding closure to these matters that continue to haunt the national discourse, President Mnangagwa hosted another important meeting with regional representatives bodies and advocacy groups under the Matebeleland collective which digested several initiatives to bring reconciliation and build enduring peace and unity regardless of the events of the past.

Through these engagements, President Mnangagwa and indeed government acknowledges that the subject is a major hindrance to national cohesion, thus the need to tread carefully through intricate consultations and continuous engagements.

To show the seriousness of the envisaged engagements the President will be accompanied to the meeting by a powerful government delegation which includes Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi, Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe, Local Government Minister July Moyo and Acting Registrar-General Mr Machiri.

Bulawayo Metropolitan Minister of Provincial Affairs Judith Ncube will also make up the government delegation to the meeting.

To prove his strong will and determination to solve this emotive issue, the President will make this his fourth engagement in Bulawayo in less than two years.

Exactly 12 months ago, on August 21, 2020, the President was at State House in Bulawayo where discussions involving documentation of Gukurahundi victims, exhumations and a national plan for the issuance of Birth and Death Certificates to surviving victims of the disturbances were discussed.

The Matebeleland Collective is a coalition of Civic Society Organisations and interest groups led by Ms Jeni Williams which advocates for a redress of some historical problems bedevilling Matebeleland such as the Matebeleland-Zambezi Water Project.

"His Excellency's commitment is quite significant because this meeting was called at very short notice. His line Ministries are coming in and we are moving," said Ms Jeni Williams then on August 21, 2020, after the third consultative meeting at Bulawayo State House.

"The equalization of the people of Matebeleland must be realised through the completion of the Zambezi Water Project, that will make our people see that something is being done," she said then.

This justifies the presence of Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe, Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, Acting Registrar General Mr Machiri.

The President then promised to do less talking and more action towards addressing these and more issues about perceived or real marginalisation of the Matebeleland region.

Even though the Gukurahundi disturbances were a national phenomenon that also affected such regions as Harare, Mashonaland and the Midlands, it is generally agreed that Matebeleland regions were affected more due to the prevalence of dissident activities there.

It is thus, in the spirit of Peace, Reconciliation and national cohesion that the government of President Mnangagwa adopted a resolution to take full responsibility for the necessary steps to bring the people together through deliberate programmes towards redress and upliftment of livelihoods.

It is hoped that when all has been said and done, healing and reconciliation will come on the people of Matebeleland. Zimbabwe is one country, thus the mantra by the Second Republic, " Leaving no one behind" speaks to the commitment to develop Zimbabwe uniformly as epitomised under the devolution agenda.