“Zimbabwe is yearning for peace and justice. At the root of that yearning is a cry for reconciliation and forgiveness.” These words, recorded in that forgotten 2006 discussion document, ‘The Zimbabwe We Want’, remain true today as Zimbabwe gears itself for the work of national peace and reconciliation. Almost three years after the Constitution established...
From 23 to 24 July 2015, 63 delegates representing 56 organisations from various transitional justice stakeholders converged in Nyanga, Zimbabwe; where they adopted the Guiding Principles for Transitional Justice Policy and Practice in Zimbabwe. Speaking at the opening of the conference, the Chairperson of the National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG) Mr. Alec Muchadehama said...
Writing in National Healing and Reconciliation in Zimbabwe: Challenges and Opportunities (IJR, 2010), former Deputy Chairperson of the National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG), Dr. Pamela Machakanje says, “Roads and bridges, for example, are given priority over issues of justice and national healing despite the fact that coming to terms with past injustices is an...
The recently gazetted National Peace and Reconciliation Bill (NPRC Bill) is blatantly unconstitutional and an insult to the sincerity Zimbabweans, the National Transitional Justice Working Group in Zimbabwe (NTJWG) has said. Speaking to stakeholders and journalists at a briefing meeting held at the Media Centre in Harare on Friday January 8, 2015, renowned human rights...
The Newsday of 20 January 2016 carried a very interesting story on a subject usually ignored when we talk about national healing and reconciliation; this is the issue of memorialisation; how we choose to remember, sometimes, a very difficult past? It was reported that lawyers Tinomudaishe Chinyoka and Zengeza East MP Alexio Musundire (MDC-T) approached...
Sekai’s Story of Courage in the Face of Violence. Interview with Sekai Gombe Zimbabwe Victims of Political Violence Trust (ZVPVT) From 10 to 18 April 2016, three committees from Parliament visited different provinces of Zimbabwe holding public hearings on the National Peace and Reconciliation Bill. The committees that convened the meetings were; the Parliamentary Thematic...
Since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2013, Zimbabweans who are concerned with justice, peace and reconciliation have impatiently waited for a legislation to give effect to the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC). In 2015, nearly three years later, and in advance of the enabling legislation, the government appointed the commissioners. Most observers were...
“Why open old wounds?” This is often the question asked each time issues of addressing past human rights violations are raised. After the July 23 2015 transitional justice stakeholders’ conference convened by the National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG) in Nyanga, together with Tony Reeder, I was interviewed by Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa on ZiFM where we...
As the interest in the NPRC heats up, with the Commissioners appointed and the draft Bill in the public eye, it is worth looking at one of the most central reasons for having this Commission: the consequences of the deliberate infliction of harm. This may seem to many an overly emotional way of talking about...
The debate on almost anything in this country is polarised on binary views, either or, for or against, with us or with them and never in between. This approach has undermined national efforts to create an identity based on shared values, history and many narratives for that matter. That Zimbabwe has undergone several periods of...
