By James Gwati-Communities in Tsholotsho have expressed concern over suggestions by the government that they will soon rope in soldiers to speed up the second phase of the COVID-19 mass vaccination programme.

This was revealed by villagers who attended a Conflict Analysis and Resilient Assessment meeting conducted by Heal Zimbabwe Trust, Tsholotsho last week

Participants highlighted that community members remained fearful of soldiers due to their role in Gukurahundi massacres that affected the District between 1983 and 1987.

”If reports that soldiers are going to lead the vaccination programme in phase 2 of the vaccination programme are true, then it is doomed to fail. We are very fearful of soldiers given that they killed thousands of people here during the Gukurahundi massacres. No one will take the vaccine if it is being administered by soldiers”, said one participant.

Participants also noted that the failure by the government to initiate a robust healing and reconciliation process to address Gukurahundi has created animosity between members of the security services and community members.

“Today if I see a soldier walking, it evokes memories of our people who were killed by members of the Fifth Brigade during Gukurahundi and telling us to get vaccinated by the same soldiers is very disrespectful and inconsiderate on the part of the government,” said another participant.

The meetings by Heal Zimbabwe are part of efforts to empower local communities to help safeguard against human rights abuse and also help build peaceful communities.

Heal Zimbabwe utilizes various strategies to address conflicts in local communities.

One of these ways is the use of community dialogues, an initiative for communities to discuss and collectively identify ways through which they can proffer solutions to problems in their communities.