Resist, Reject and Report Violence, #RRRV2023
A history of political annihilation
Examples of political intolerance preceding violence in Zimbabwe can be traced as far
back to Zanu PF’s revolutionary Gukurahundi (the rain that washes away chaff) approach
adopted in the early years of independence and continued until 1987.. Gukurahundi, a
colloquial expression, derived from the Shona language, directly translates to “the storm
that destroys everything”. It was, in essence,a deliberately violent policy of annihilation
aimed at rendering the opposition impotent.
Thus began a new post-independence government born out of bloodshed and violence.
One that had, in effect, mastered the use of fear and the inculcation of values based on
using political violence as a means of gaining electoral advantage or of accumulating
and/or sustaining political control.
Suspicions and tensions remained rife between the two military wings (ZIPRA and
ZANLA) that fought for the country’s liberation. The ‘discovery’ of an arms cache in
farms owned by PF-ZAPU (Zimbabwe African People’s Union - Patriotic Front) led by the
late Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo culminated in massacres in Matabeleland. The
now infamous North-Korean trained Fifth Brigade (an infantry brigade of the Zimbabwe
National Army) was, in 1983, deployed to deal with dissidents: disgruntled former
guerrillas and supporters of PF-ZAPU. Over the following two years, thousands of
Ndebele and Kalanga people were detained by government forces and either force
marched to re-education camps, tortured, raped and/or summarily executed. Atrocities
were known to be severe in Tsholotsho in 1983 and in Matobo in 1984 with substantial
data on record of cruel beatings, excessive torture, mass detentions and killings at
Bhalagwe Camp which was established near Maphisa. Although there are different
estimates, the consensus is that in the aftermath of this massacre, more than 20 000
people were killed.
13
January 2023
The Zimbabwe Peace Project Monthly Monitoring Report