Though many across Zimbabwe observed National Unity Day on Wednesday some in Matabeleland were markedly unenthusiastic on the subject.
Unity Day commemorates the signing in 1987 of the Unity Accord ending a conflict between the Zimbabwe African National Union of then-Prime Minister Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union.
In Bulawayo, members of the revived ZAPU party planned a demonstration against the observation which for many in the region evokes memories of the so-called Gukurahundi campaign waged by ZANU through operations by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade which observers charged and historians have concluded often involved massacres.
ZAPU Youth Front spokesman Tulo Makwati told VOA Studio 7 reporter Chris Gande that police initially gave a green light for the march but made a U-turn on Tuesday.
