Plans to set up a memorial monument for victims of the Gukurahundi genocide at Balagwe Camp in Matobo seem to have hit a snag as stakeholders continue to haggle over the matter eight months on.
Three months ago, a Bulawayo-based organisation civic group, the Zimbabwe Victims of Organised Violence Trust (Zivov), said it was lobbying MPs to raise the matter in Parliament.
Zivov secretary Bhekithemba Nyathi told NewsDay on Monday that “nothing has been done so far concerning the issue”.
“The parliamentarians we had approached to discuss the issue in Parliament have not yet done so,” he said.
Nyathi, however, said they were still pushing for the issue to be discussed.
“We will still continue to lobby for the issue, because we are determined to see the monument erected at Balagwe Camp,” he said.
In February, Zivov made an application to the Matobo Rural District Council (RDC) to erect a memorial site at the camp in honour of the hundreds of villagers reportedly killed and mass-buried at the site during the Gukurahundi era between 1982 and 1987.
The Matobo RDC last month said it would take the issue to the Ministry of Home Affairs before a firm decision could be made whether to turn the former concentration camp into a Gukurahundi memorial site.
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Presently, the site has been earmarked for a District Heroes’ Acre.
An estimated 20 000 villagers in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces died during Gukurahundi.
