The controversial Gukurahundi hearings led by traditional chiefs have come under fire from rights activists and victims’ groups, who say the process lacks transparency and risks whitewashing decades of state atrocities.
Local advocacy group Ibhetshu Likazulu expressed serious concerns about the ongoing hearings, which were launched last week in parts of Matabeleland and are intended to give victims of the 1980s massacres a platform to testify.
The group said the government’s refusal to allow journalists and independent observers into the sessions raises alarm about the credibility and intent of the process.
“We are still advocating for media involvement to ensure transparency,” Ibhetshu Likazulu said in a statement. “For this process to be credible, it must be inclusive and involve all stakeholders.”
The organisation also criticised the exclusion of victims from the Midlands, Bulawayo, and the diaspora, as well as the lack of engagement with known or suspected perpetrators of the atrocities.
Between 1983 and 1987, over 20,000 civilians mostly ethnic Ndebele were killed, tortured, or disappeared when the government deployed the North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade to suppress alleged dissent in Matabeleland and parts of the Midlands.
Although a Chihambakwe Commission of Inquiry was set up in the 1980s to investigate the killings, its findings have never been made public. The current administration claims it cannot locate the report.
Ibhetshu Likazulu warned that the continued secrecy and lack of victim-centered mechanisms suggest the state is not serious about truth and reconciliation.
