Gukurahundi Documentary Set For Local Screening

A documentary on the 1980s Gukurahundi atrocities in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces which has been circulating in neighbouring countries since its launch last year will be finally introduced to local audiences at the end of next month, its producer said last week.

Gukurahundi: A Moment of Madness, produced by Zenzele Ndebele who is a human rights activist, was the highlight of a Gaborone film festival organised by the Botswana Centre for Human Rights (Ditshwanelo) in March.
The Botswana debut followed its launch in South Africa in November last year after Ndebele said he feared harassment by state security agents if he showcased it locally.
But Ndebele said the recent signing of a power-sharing agreement between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) provided an opportunity to bring "the documentary home".
The agreement signed on September 15, paving the way for the formation of a government of national unity, calls for the parties to respect freedom of expression.
"We have received a lot of enquiries from Zimbabweans interested in the documentary but because of the political situation in the country at that time, we were not able to launch it here," he said. "Now that the protagonists in the political crisis have agreed to put aside their differences, we hope we can now be able to distribute it more openly and satisfy the demand."
"The film will now be officially launched in Bulawayo on October 31 and those who have been patiently waiting for its release can be assured of a much better product than the one launched in South Africa."
He said the documentary that was originally 25 minutes long had now been stretched to 45 minutes after he interviewed former "dissidents", some Gukurahundi victims and former PF Zapu officials.
"We had some interesting interviews with people like the infamous "dissident" Tennyson "Thambolenyoka" Ndlovu and survivors of the atrocities who gave chilling accounts of what took place," Ndebele said.
Gukurahundi is a Shona term that refers to the wet season’s first rains that wash away all the chaff, and was the name given to an army unit deployed in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces to fight an insurgency in the western part of the country soon after independence.
The soldiers were accused of committing atrocities against the then opposition PF Zapu supporters in the two provinces. Human rights groups estimate that over 20 000 people were killed during the campaign.
In 1999, President Robert Mugabe referred to the atrocities as a "moment of madness" but that was the closest he came to apologising. Debate on the atrocities has been stifled by pervasive fear among Zimbabweans who risk being hauled before the courts under draconian media and security laws.
"Everybody here knows someone who was affected by Gukurahundi," says Ndebele. "But it was very, very hard to find anyone who would open up. Of those who agreed to talk, several changed their minds afterwards — they would call and ask me not to include them in the footage.

However, the second shooting done after the June 27 presidential election run-off was less challenging because survivors were opening up, he said.