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Gukurahundi claims anger Zapu

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Zapu has rejected claims that its president Dumiso Dabengwa said members of his party must also apologise for the Gukuruhundi atrocities. The reports followed a weekend interview the former Home Affairs minister granted the State media where he allegedly said both Zapu and Zanu PF must apologise for the atrocities in the Midlands and Matabeleland. […]

Zapu has rejected claims that its president Dumiso Dabengwa said members of his party must also apologise for the Gukuruhundi atrocities.

The reports followed a weekend interview the former Home Affairs minister granted the State media where he allegedly said both Zapu and Zanu PF must apologise for the atrocities in the Midlands and Matabeleland.

But Zapu secretary-general Ralph Mguni in a statement yesterday said media organisations were deliberately misquoting Dabengwa to discredit his party.

“On reading the narrative after, one was left wondering at how such an outrageous statement could be made, who it came from and why,” he said.

“How could Zapu apologise for the heinous crimes perpetrated against its own members? In the interview, Dabengwa described how Zanu PF planned to destroy Zapu and its leader (late Vice-President Joshua) Nkomo.

“What justice would require the victim to explain the dehumanisation meted out by a deranged aggressor? Our opponents are poised to fight us on all fronts, it’s not a battle for the faint-hearted.”

An estimated 20 000 civilians were killed soon after independence after the government deployed the 5th Brigade in the two provinces. The killings only ended in 1987 when Zapu agreed to merge with Zanu PF. President Robert Mugabe called the period “a moment of madness” but stopped short of apologising.

Dabengwa said the problems around Gukurahundi would not go away until the perpetrators apologised. Mguni also dismissed claims that Zapu was a Zanu PF creation to divide votes in Matabeleland.

“To suggest that Zapu, let alone our president would work in cahoots with the party that has brought about so much pain, both personally and nationally, to maintain the status quo is the greatest insult that could be heaped on Zapu and its president,” he said.

“Our late president Joshua Nkomo did refer to the methods of Zanu PF as ‘fascist’ thereby distancing Zapu from that party. How can anyone believe a Press lie that would portray Zapu as a Zanu PF project, particularly at this time after the final schism of 2008?”

Dabengwa led a group of former Zapu members who pulled out of the Unity Accord with Zanu PF in 2009.