Mutasa distances self from Gukurahundi links
Main News Politics Zimbabwe

Mutasa distances self from Gukurahundi links

by Staff Reporter

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Mutasa …denies Gukurahundi links

Former Security Minister  and expelled Zanu PF senior official Didymus Mutasa has denied any Gukurahundi  involvement, saying he Speaker of Parliament in Harare for the first 10 years of independence.

 

“I did not know about Gukurahundi as I was Speaker of Parliament in Harare for the first 10 years of independence. We didn’t speak about it in parliament. No one told me about it. I would only know about violence if I read it in the newspapers,” Mutasa said.

 

In April this year Mutasa questioned a Daily news reporter  whether he ever asked the current Speaker Jacob Mudenda about what is happening in government now.

 

“Nobody knows what was happening during Gukurahundi, we were just hearing stories,” Mutasa said when quizzed by the Daily News about the government’s human rights abuses especially Gukurahundi.

 

Mutasa , 80 last week Thursday gave an exclusive interview to journalist Peta Thornycroft at his residence .

The Legal Resources Foundation and the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace documented massacres and the widespread repression of opposition supporters by North Korean-trained soldiers in Matabeleland in 1983 to 1987. An estimated 20 000 people died in what became known as Gukurahundi.

 

Mutasa by virtue of his position in Zanu PF since independence was linked with political violence that took place during Mugabe’s 35 year old rule in Zimbabwe.

Mutasa said most ministers in cabinet were “mere sailors who are not in control of the ship”.

 

“But it seems Mutasa has forgotten much of the ruling Zanu-PF’s  bloody rule. In conversation with him at his home, it seems as if his ears were blocked for 35 years. Or, perhaps, to put it more kindly, he really did live in another, much kinder Zimbabwean world”, observed Peta.

 

“I do now know that Zanu-PF did violence. And cheated in elections. But both sides did violence, I accept it was mostly Zanu-PF violence. I am very sorry about that”, said Mutasa

 

 

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