With community hearings into the Gukurahundi atrocities underway across Matabeleland, the government’s recent pledge to compensate victims has stirred mixed feelings among survivors and their families, with many questioning its timing, sincerity and practicality.
The National Council of Chiefs said compensation would be case-specific and depend on the unique experiences of each individual or family affected by the 1980s genocide.
However, at Khozi Village in Ward 6, Gwanda North, where community members gathered for hearings led by Chief Mathema, locals expressed conflicted sentiments over the government’ proposed redress.
In seperate interviews after the hearings which CITE did not attend as stipulated by the National Chiefs Council, some said compensation might bring a sense of relief, but others felt that no amount of money could undo the pain or bring back the dead and that what they wanted most was a “sorry” from the perpetrators.
“Compensation is tricky,” said one villager who asked to remain anonymous.
“Yes, it may lessen the burden we’ve carried for decades. But the real people who suffered, those tortured and killed, are buried under this soil. If only the perpetrators had come and said ‘we are sorry’ while still alive, it would have meant more.
Now we just hear rumours about compensation. Nothing is in writing. How much? Who qualifies? We don’t know.”
The survivor added that, after 42 years, many victims are now elderly, some crippled and unwell.
“Even if you get money now, will it really help? No one knows,” said the villager.
Another villager used a stark analogy to express discomfort about the meaning of compensation.
“Yes, we can talk about compensation but how will I describe it?” he asked.
“Let’s say I catch someone with my wife and he pays me two cows as a fine. What do I call those cows? ‘Cows for adultery?’ How do I explain what this money is for, people being killed?”
For him and others, a simple apology would go much further.
“It’s better for sorry then it ends like that. Even in families, when there’s a conflict, it’s the word ‘sorry’ that is important,” he said.
Source: CITE
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