THE Joice Mujuru-led opposition Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) yesterday said Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa should be dragged to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague and charged with crimes against humanity for allegedly inciting the Gukurahundi massacres.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
This came as Mnangagwa recently denied playing a role in the atrocities, which claimed over 20 000 lives of mostly unarmed civilians after the government despatched a crack army unit to track down perceived PF-Zapu dissidents in Matabeleland and Midlands regions in the early to mid-1980s.
ZimPF spokesperson, Jealousy Mawarire, said Mnangagwa’s denial, published in a United Kingdom-based magazine New Statesman, was a mere public relations stunt to cleanse his political image and present him as President Robert Mugabe’s heir apparent.
“It is apparent that the whole story is a desperate, but shoddy attempt at sprucing up Mnangagwa’s image in the vain hope he can be Zimbabwe’s next President. What we fail to get is why the British publication desperately attempts to do public relations for Mnangagwa through these clandestine and spooky interviews, which unfortunately, gloss over his role in the Gukurahundi massacres,” Mawarire said.
ZimPF, whose leader Joice Mujuru was also in Mugabe’s government, while her late husband Solomon was the army commander, said Mnangagwa should be arrested and thrown into jail for his role in the massacres.
“Just like Leon Mugesera in Rwanda, Mnangagwa incited the genocidal killings in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, but while Mugesera is serving a prison life sentence, this British publication wants to present Mnangagwa as presidential material. Mnangagwa belongs to Chikurubi or some such place like The Hague-headquartered ICC could have confined him to if all things were equal,” Mawarire said.
He said the interview sought to portray Mnangagwa in good light, while trashing Mujuru as a political novice after she spurned attempts to railroad her into the proposed National Transitional Authority (NTA).
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“NTA proponent, Derek Matyszak, whose Platform for Concerned Citizens team failed to persuade Mujuru to endorse the murky idea of a transitional authority. Rather than talk of Mujuru, these staggering Mnangagwa public relations zealots would do well to persuade him to release the Gukurahundi inquiry report because, as Justice minister, he certainly should know where it is hidden,” Mawarire said.
