National Healing co-minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu Wednesday vowed to continue holding meetings for Gukurahundi victims despite his bail conditions barring him from doing so.
Last week, Mzila-Ndlovu was released from police custody on stringent bail conditions after he allegedly addressed a meeting for Gukurahundi victims and survivors in Lupane without police clearance.
Besides the $500 bail, Mzila-Ndlovu surrendered his passport to the clerk of court and was ordered not to address public gatherings without police clearance, not to interfere with State witnesses and reside at his given Bulawayo home address until the court case was finalised.
But the defiant minister told NewsDay Wednesday: “My recent arrest and detention does not mean anything. It is a ploy to stop a proper procedure to accomplish national healing.
“I am not afraid to be arrested or killed. I have been arrested many times and I am not frightened by that. I am proceeding with the meetings which police disrupted.”
Mzila-Ndlovu said he had already lined up meetings at Kezi, Lupane, Victoria Falls, Mount Darwin and Manicaland Province where political violence has been reported since independence.
He said he would ensure the organ’s other co-ministers attend the meetings.
“I want to meet the victims to enable them to speak out about their experiences and also have perpetrators confess their crimes. If police block the process, they are also criminals,” said Mzila-Ndlovu.
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“We want to have the victims compensated. That is the first priority of the programme to mend broken hearts in Matabeleland, Midlands and other affected parts of the country.”
Police recently disrupted a Gukurahundi victims’ meeting in Kezi. Mzila-Ndlovu was later arrested together with Roman Catholic priest, Marko Mkandla while attending a Gukurahundi victims’ memorial service in Lupane.
He was set to attend another meeting in Victoria Falls which was also banned by the police following his arrest.
