The implementation of rape in Operation Gukurahundi from 1983 to 1984 was a premeditated and methodical system of devastation and destruction in Zimbabwe. Those with oversight of the Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwean National Army and the Central Intelligence Organization, including the Joint High Command, headed by the current President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, employed systematic and far-reaching rape and sexual violence as a weapon of genocidal violence against a specific group, namely the Ndebele, in both intent and effect, thereby fulfilling every condition of the Genocide Convention principles of genocide (United Nations 1948). #JusticeForGukurahundi

Evidence of the extreme sadistic sexual violence that was presented by Mfundo (19 years old, MS). He recalls how in March 1984, about 1,000 Ndebele were forced to attend an organized meeting about 40 km from Plumtree, Matabeleland South. There were large numbers of Fifth Brigade as well as CIO. At least one hundred died through beatings, shootings and other forms of cruelty at that meeting. There was a man there who worked for a white farmer. He had two wives. They [Fifth Brigade soldiers] hit him, beat him and then they cut off his front parts [penis and testicles]. They then put the parts in a brown paper bag and gave the bag to one of his wives and told her to “go and show the boss [the white farmer].” They then threw him in the hole he had been made to dig. They put in roots—we don’t call them sticks we call them roots—and everything and burnt him. We had all been called to gather round and watch this whole scene. #Gukurahundi

The emergence of Zanuisation, Shonalisation and the development of a personality cult centered around Prime Minister Robert Mugabe marginalized ex-Zipra combatants and transformed the newly formed Zimbabwean national army into a wing of Zanu-PF.

Before Zanu-PF divided Zimbabweans on political and tribal lines, ZIPRA soldiers received a hero's welcome from residents of Chitungwiza - 22 km south of Harare - in November 1980.