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To build peace, restore relationships: Interview with Stemible Mpofu
Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa, Kubatana.net
October 25, 2010

Read Inside / Out with Stemible Mpofu

Stembile Mpofu is Director of the Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation (CCMT). CCMT works toward rebuilding relationships within communities that have experienced conflict. Mrs. Mpofu has been with CCMT since 2002. The Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation (CCMT) is a Zimbabwean Non-Governmental Organization working in the field of peace and conflict transformation. CCMT has a vision of a Zimbabwe that enjoys peace and harmony created through cooperation and sustainable conflict management and transformation in society. To that end, it sees its mission as helping to build a culture of non-violence and peaceful resolution of all forms of conflict in Zimbabwe and the SADC region by enhancing the capacity of individuals, organisations and communities to effectively manage and transform their conflicts.

What is the root cause of conflict in Zimbabwe?

The root causes are many. We have a society that is disintegrating in terms of the structure that makes up that society. You look at the health sector, the education sector, and what will happen when those structures disintegrate is that people will turn on each other in the communities. For example, if you look at the education sector, we have teachers that aren-t able to deliver either because they don-t have enough money to go to work or they-re getting a low salary, which doesn-t meet their needs and they need to supplement that income. So their attention is taken away from their main business and they have to do other things. As a result of that the parents who are paying their fees are not very happy when the results aren-t good. Then you get tension within a community and you see conflicts erupting. The blame cannot be laid on any of the people within that structure, but everybody struggling to survive. So you see that played out in all the different sectors.

One of the hazards of working with communities is that they often give you the answers that they think you want. How do you avoid this problem?

We have encountered this problem in the past, and as a result we-ve made a strategic shift and are offering a service to communities . . . we will go into an area where we sensitise community leaders and let them know what service we offer which is a facilitative service. It is then up to them to decide whether or not they feel our work would be relevant within their community, and they invite us to come into that community.

Academically the history of conflict in this country may be traced back as far as pre-colonial tribal wars. How does this manifest in today-s conflict situations?

When you look at the different communities today, there isn-t a cut off point where you can say this is a new generation and start afresh. The reality is that we take on historical baggage from our parents. Stories are told and retold. And then these things shape us. They shape how we respond to particular situations. If you look at the pre-colonial times, we had ethnic tensions between Ndebele and Shona. How those have been interpreted with time and how they are perceived now, might be a bit different from how it actually was back then. But those stories become our reality. We respond to each other based on these perceptions. This is how these historical conflicts affect our lives today. We look at colonial times where particular structures were put in place to meet particular needs. Maybe those structures haven-t been taken down and maybe their effects are still at play within our work today and even newer structures have been brought in on top of those old structures. So a lot of friction happens. An example is the friction between local government structures and traditional leadership structures. I think it-s a conflict that we-ve seen across the country in many different ways. It plays out in that when resources come into a particular community, who has access to them, who decides who is going to access those resources and which system is going to be used to determine access? So a lot of conflict arises as a result of that.

How do you think the possible holding of elections next year will affect the conflict situation in Zimbabwe?

I don-t know. I think that there-s a lot of speculation around high levels of violence. But I don-t think we-ll be looking at a June 2008 situation. A lot of variables have shifted in terms of having that sort of violence within communities. I think the communities themselves aren-t keen to go through that sort of trauma. But there is a possibility of violence. I think what we could do is to engage local government structures and political parties to see how with our capacity we can try to minimise any violence that might happen within communities.

How important is the issue of justice to conflict resolution?

I think it-s an important aspect of conflict resolution. But the main tenant of conflict resolution is about restoring relationships. Within the area of justice there-s usually a winner and a loser and so what we do is to try and mend the relationship between the conflicting parties. We-ve found that in some of the conflicts that we-ve been asked to intervene in the conflicting parties will have used the justice system and that might still be pending or be a process that is ongoing. But the people will express a need to deal with the relationship because they live in the same community; they are dependent on each other. The justice issue is important but the transformative aspect must complement it.

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