Police stop Silobela Gukurahundi memorial, rights group says

This incident occurred on January 31, 2026, in Ward 23, KoJackson, where community members had organised a peaceful gathering to honour the “Disappeared Ten.” The 10 who disappeared on 31 January 1985 were known as Enoch Mthelo Tshuma, Mbulawa Mnkandla, Simon Siginya Bhozho Dube, Lambert Ncube, Milton Ndlangamandla, Patrick Mthethwa, Dennis Mabhikwa, Mika Kefasi Ndebele, Clement Baleni and Velile Hlongwane. These victims were husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, whose disappearance still remains a permanent wound to their families. Ibhetshu Likazulu Secretary, General Mbuso Fuzwayo, told CITE that the concerned Silobela community and the families of the abducted had gathered to mark the day of the abduction and their disappearance.

The day was planned with a prayer session, laying of flowers and a community soccer match, which was, however, stopped by the police. Fuzwayo condemned the police intervention, arguing that such community-led acts of remembrance should not require state sanction. “The police claim the right to sanction all community events.

The planned event, as usual, involved a prayer, laying flowers in memory of the disappeared, and a soccer match. These are activities communities do, like prayers and games, without seeking state authorisation,” he said. The human rights activist framed the police action as part of a broader governmental campaign to suppress memory and shield perpetrators of Gukurahundi.

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“It is therefore beyond doubt that the government of Zimbabwe is fighting the memory of the disappeared and other victims of the Gukurahundi genocide. It is forced forgetting and an attempt at erasing history,” Fuzwayo charged, as he contextualised the event within the painful history of the Gukurahundi genocide during the early 1980s. Gukurahundi was marked by a brutal state crackdown primarily targeting the Ndebele ethnic group where an estimated 20 000 civilians were killed by state security forces, including the notorious Fifth Brigade. Fuzwayo noted that despite the government’s “half-hearted” attempts to solve the matter, it was disheartening that the Midlands region has been systematically marginalised in official discussions.

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