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National Healing impossible under Mugabe: MDC legislator for Masvingo Urban
Youth Forum
March 03, 2009

As the nation moves to come to terms with the formation of an inclusive government, indications on the ground still point to the fact that the National Healing process as provided for in Article 7 of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) of September 15 remains a mirage as long as Robert Mugabe is at the helm of Zimbabwe. Recent developments in some rural areas particularly Masvingo province in Bikita East constituency where violence broke out between party supporters of the parties which signed the GPA point out to this. Apparently some victims of the post-March 29 violence have started retaliating for the violence they suffered from a Zanu PF orchestrated campaign of violence.

Speaking at a Youth Forum public meeting held on Thursday the 26th of February, Tongai Matutu the MDC-T legislator for Masvingo Urban highlighted the fact that the formation of an inclusive government was not what the MDC anticipated when they went to the polls on March 29 2008. Hon. Matutu highlighted that it was meaningless to start talking about national healing when the whole nation still does not know what really transpired during the conflict period. To date, a lot of people are still unaccounted for despite that negotiations have given birth to an inclusive government. A lot of opposition supporters were killed maimed or had their properties destroyed and are now living near-destitute lives as a result of the Zanu PF-orchestrated violence. Hon. Matutu said that such a precedence where a blanket amnesty is extended to known and unknown perpetrators of political violence will not help the nation to overcome the violence that clearly destroyed community and individual relationships. Therefore it is imperative that a process of genuine transitional justice is carried out to accomplish the national healing process. It is also necessary to address the various issues of the victims, particularly reparations for the victims who lost relatives, properties and sources of livelihoods. Most participants at the public meeting also concurred that it was impossible that an amnesty should be granted to the perpetrators of violence by any state representative on behalf of the victims. Even a presidential or prime ministerial amnesty would not do anything to heal the wounds of the survivors of violence and institute genuine national healing.

Participants at another public meeting held on 28 February in Bikita at Bikita Training centre also highlighted the same fact that it was impossible for anyone to talk of an amnesty where someone would forgive political violence perpetrators on behalf of the victims. Many noted that only a genuine victim-driven transitional justice process that hinges on perpetrators making confessions before a public tribunal will help restore community and individual relations. Apart from this it was also necessary to pay reparations to genuine victims of political violence. This clearly flies in the face of recent utterances by Augustine Chihuri the police Commissioner-general who recently issued a decree for all police stations to drop charges for all politically-motivated murder cases. This directive will not help achieve the goal of national healing as deep-seated divisions will always exist without a proper transitional justice mechanism.

Meanwhile, the Youth Forum is deeply disturbed to realize that Mugabe did not offer the nation his birthday surprise as he has promised ahead of the ZANU-PF personality cult festival dubbed the "21st movement" which celebrates the life of a post colonial African dictator. Instead, Mugabe surprised many the world over when he declared that ZANU-PF which lost a credible election to the MDC on March 29 was still in power. Such reckless falsehoods run contrary to the spirit of the Inter Parties Agreement and are likely to foment politically motivated violence and murders.

The Youth Forum continues to call upon the new government to start instituting a process of transitional justice characterized by four fundamentals namely truth-telling and apologies, reparations for victims, healing the wounds of survivors and true passage of justice. Such a process should be led by a truly independent and impartial Truth and Reconciliation Commission and should be guided by statutes within a new, democratic people-driven constitution.

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