The Sunday Mail
Robin Muchetu
Bulawayo Bureau
Gukurahundi should be discussed freely and openly by people in order to find lasting solutions and closure on the matter, Vice President Kembo Mohadi has said.
Speaking after a closed-door meeting with chiefs from Matabeleland South in Gwanda Town yesterday, V P Mohadi said he was happy that dialogue was starting to take root.
“I am happy that people are talking about it and that is the only way we can bring closure to this issue. We are going to get closure. Some suggestions were brought about during our meeting, including compensation for the victims, openly talking about the issue and other developmental issues such as why we lag behind other provinces,” he said.
He applauded chiefs for a fruitful meeting.
The parties pledged to continue dialoguing.
“We talked about devolution, we need to leverage on our locally available resources in order to generate employment and improve the standard of living for our people.
“We could not exhaust everything, but the chiefs will meet again and have a draft of resolutions and we will consider in order of importance their suggestions and work on them,” he said.
V P Mohadi said it was an established fact that African societies have always had institutional mechanisms to uphold peace, tolerance, solidarity and respect.
These structures, he added, were responsible for promoting peace, confidence-building, peace-making, peace-building, conflict management and conflict resolution.
“However, I have resolved to base my peace-building and conflict-resolution crusade on our tradition and culture cognisant that I have to engage other social groups, but using the traditional cultural approach as the platform for my engagement and dialogue with these other social groups.
“I am going to engage young people in their social spaces of schools, colleges and universities and take my message of peace-building and conflict resolution to them. I shall engage women groups, business and religious organisations on this peace-building conflict-resolution crusade.”
He said chiefs were the custodians of traditions and culture and that their status and role is recognised in the Constitution.
