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Bulawayo Agenda
June 25, 2012

Bulawayo Agenda in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum was, last week, (week 18-22 June) engaged in a series of meetings with people from Lupane, Gwanda and Gweru with the objective of capacitating them on Transitional Justice. Below are brief highlights of the three meetings.

Lupane

The Zimbabwe Republic Police once again came under scrutiny at a meeting organized by Lupane Agenda on Monday. The meeting was organized to capacitate participants on transitional justice and to encourage them to speak out about the past injustices and violations of their rights.

The participants said they are still not free to speak out about what happened to them during the 1980s Gukurahundi genocide and other acts of violence that followed it like Operation Murambatsvina and the violence that preceded the 2008 election run-off because they fear victimization.

"We are the ones who had our parents killed in the 1980s but the CIOs are continuing to thwart efforts to deliver transitional justice. The security institutions have been in the forefront of violating people's rights and we know that CIOs are in this meeting and they shall be coming after us," said one female participant referring to plain-clothed police officers who were easily identifiable at the meeting. Shastry Njeru, the Unit Manager for Transitional Justice at the NGO Forum said in other countries like Yugoslavia, the process of Transitional Justice involved vetting of civil servants in order to retain those that only respect the people's rights.

Gwanda

Institutional reform is critical in the process of achieving Transitional Justice as it helps to ensure that perpetrators of violences' wings are clipped. This was one of the issues discussed at a meeting organized by Gwanda Agenda at the Strides Boardroom in Gwanda on Tuesday. Participants who included academics, civil servants, civil society members and political party representatives said that institutional reform is an overdue process which should have happened simultaneously with the formation of the government of national unity.

"There has to be a paradigm shift in the way government institutions are run. How do you explain are scenario where a nurse or a police officer wears a ZANU PF T-shirt under their uniform. That shows that the possibility of them being biased to that party is very high. That culture has to be stopped forthwith," said one participant. In an intellectually engaging discussion, the participants said that the transitional justice process should also take into account other forms of violence which include structural violence and the continued marginalization of Matabeleland and Midlands provinces.

Gweru

As the debate on how far back should the process of Transitional Justice start to investigate violations of Human Rights, Gweru residents have thrown their weight behind the view that the process should start with violations that happened just after independence.

At a meeting organized by Gweru Agenda yesterday, civic activist, church leaders and political party representatives said that starting the TJ process in the year 2000 shall do more harm than good to the society.

"1980 is the year Rhodesia turned to Zimbabwe and when we investigate violations of human rights in Zimbabwe, we should start from 1980 to present day. Starting the process in 2000 insinuates that the lives that were lost during Gukurahundi are not as important as those lost from the year 2000; in any case, 20 000 lives lost between 1982 and 1987 are more than those lost between the year 2000 to present," said one participant.The general sentiment at the meeting was that the constant arrests and re-arrests of co-minister of National Moses Mzila was a clear sign that the country is not yet ready for Transitional Justice. They said the next government should be tasked with making sure that the process takes place.

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