GWERU – PRESIDENTIAL candidate Noah Manyika says Zimbabwe will never achieve true healing if the political leadership does not take deliberate steps to atone for Gukurahundi.

Manyika, who will take his Build Zimbabwe Alliance (BZA) into the July 30 election, says the country’s political leadership must change its approach, beginning with a fulsome apology for the 1980s massacres in the Matabeleland countryside which targeted mainly the minority Ndebele population.

Rights groups say 20,000 people lost their lives in the army-led operation and thousands more were driven into exile in neighbouring countries.

Manyika, who was in Gweru for campaign engagements, said it was reckless for those who were not directly affected by the massacres to be dismissive.

“I happen to be Shona, although I speak Ndebele, and I didn’t experience the pain that the people from Matabeleland felt. There is no need for us as Shona people to be dismissive of what people went through and say, ‘well, that happened 20 years ago’,” Manyika said.

“Those who had relatives killed, even if it’s 50 years ago, the pain for them is real.”

He said the approach by the ruling Zanu PF government to suppress discussion about the atrocities would not assist the country move forward as one.

“I think some of the ways we address the issues that have affected our brothers and sisters in Matabeleland, I think it’s very unfortunate,” he went on.

“Sometimes we are asked as leaders to apologise. It’s very different if you’re just an ordinary citizen but if you’re going to have your hands on the reins of power, citizens are asking you to apologise not because you directly caused the pain but representing a group that caused the pain.”

President Emmerson Mnangagwa was Minister of State Security at the time, with former President Robert Mugabe as leader.

Manyika believes the two men feared an apology would be interpreted as an admission of guilt for the massacres. Redress for the affected communities, he said, would only come if all Zimbabweans stood in unity and demanded action.

“It’s not a crime to be proud of who you are as Ndebele or Shona, but what becomes a crime is when your pride of who you are diminishes the worth of another person,” he explained.

“I believe we are all Zimbabweans and when we say we’re going to defend the constitutional right of every person that’s exactly what should happen.

“I’m not ashamed that I was born Shona, I’m ashamed of the fact that as a Shona I fail to empathize with my fellow citizens and we fail to come together to celebrate that we are different and yet one.”

Mnangagwa, who faces his first election for the presidency against 22 other candidates, has rejected calls to apologise for Gukurahundi, urging Zimbabweans to “let bygones be bygones”.