The Mthwakazi Republic Party (MRP) plans to protests against the holding of this year’s Independence Day celebrations in Maphisa, specifically at Bhalagwe in Matabeleland South, a location historically associated with the Gukurahundi atrocities.
According to the MRP, Bhalagwe is not a neutral venue and remains a crime scene until there is closure to the 1980s mass killings in Matabeleland and the Midlands.
Available records indicate that Bhalagwe was widely recorded as one of the sites used during the Gukurahundi operations of the 1980s under the government of the late president Robert Mugabe.
MRP leader Mqondisi Moyo said the location represented unresolved grief, unmarked graves, and unanswered historical injustice.
“As MRP, we regard the decision as politically insensitive and historically premature,” Moyo told Southern Eye Weekly.
“Independence Day celebrations are meant to symbolise liberation, dignity, and national unity.
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“However, hosting a celebratory state event at a site associated with mass civilian suffering — without prior truth-telling, acknowledgment, reparations, or memorialisation — risks appearing dismissive of historical trauma.”
Moyo said the MRP was exploring various avenues to stop the celebrations being held in Bhalagwe, including court action and lawful street protests.
Moyo said the MRP is also consulting with affected communities in Maphisa and surrounding districts as well as engaging legal experts on the constitutional implications relating to dignity, historical justice, and community consultation.
“While our primary approach is peaceful, community-driven advocacy and engagement with legal experts on historical justice and human rights implications, the party is not ruling out the organisation of physical, but entirely peaceful demonstrations to protest the planned celebrations if they proceed without meaningful consultation and acknowledgement of the site’s historical significance,” Moyo said.
“Independence commemorations must respect the dignity of victims, acknowledge historical truth, and address the unresolved sovereignty and justice questions of the Mthwakazi people — without these, unity and independence remain incomplete.”
No comment could be immediately obtained from Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs minister Albert Nguluvhe.
Countless civilians were thrown into mine shafts in Bhalagwe when Mugabe unleashed a reign of terror in Matabeleland and the Midlands in the 1980s, resulting in the deaths of over 20 000 civilians.
Mugabe died without offering an apology to find closure for the atrocities that some scholars have labelled as genocide.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was State Security minister at the time, has tasked traditional leaders to lead public hearings into the killings.
However, the process is plagued by secrecy, amid reports that it has stalled due to funding challenges from the Treasury.