Hon Speaker, thank you very much. Paying homage to a controversial leader like President Robert Mugabe is daunting to any person who has cared to interrogate his legacy. The living dead, in terms of the African traditions are never to be spoken ill of. However, we can talk about President Mugabe's legacy.
Let us start with Gukurahundi Massacre of the Ndebele Civilians which was carried out by the Zimbabwean National Army from early 1983 to late 1987. Over 30000 people were brutally killed under the blatant command of President Mugabe. In this regard, we are calling upon President Emmerson Mnangagwa to establish the truth and
reconciliation commission to bring the perpetrators to book.
He led the dual role of transforming the economy of Zimbabwe and providing quality education. He regrettably also led a dual role of destroying the same economy as well as trampling on human rights of the Zimbabwean people by aligning himself to the Pan Africanist Agenda. President Mugabe assisted many Azanian People's Liberation Army, Apla, comrades and combatants. This is the leaf that we take out of his political life, his commitment to Pan Africanism.
In the latter years of his life, he had started embracing accountable leadership on the continent, lashing out at the despots in diaspora. President Mugabe's indigenisation land programme was pugnacious, ill- informed and misinformed. From his life, we learn of the African leader who rose to prominence on the back of a struggle for his people but had his political life cut short because of his penchant for absolute power. We wish his family well. May his soul rest in eternal peace! I thank you.