‘forgiving and forgetting’ under the guise of ‘national
reconciliation’ was adopted and pursued, albeit
grudgingly. The Lancaster House negotiated settlement
failed to identify perpetrators and hold them to account,
and failed to identify, acknowledge and address the
needs of victims. It also failed both to undertake the
necessary institutional transformation required to
address issues and to install the necessary safeguards
for the young democracy (Machakanja and Mungure
2013). It should be noted that in the 1970s and 1980s
impunity was the norm and accountability largely the
exception.
Zimbabwe enacted an enabling legislation to
operationalize the National Peace and Reconciliation
Commission (NPRC) on 5 January 2017, which was
long overdue, since 2013. The NPRC is set to address
a pile-up of Zimbabwe’s violent legacies experienced
before and after the country’s independence in 1980.
However, the citizenry has been party to protracted
debates and uncertainty regarding the feasibility
of sustainable peace and reconciliation process.
Drawing from both domestic and international
experiences, this review provides pointers into
the options for Zimbabwe’s national healing,
reconciliation and peacebuilding. This paper reviews
Zimbabwe’s healing reconciliation discourse and how
the process could be prosecuted. This review is also
a precursor to Heal Zimbabwe’s nation-wide baseline
study conducted to solicit communities’ perceptions of
what constitutes healing, peace and reconciliation.
The baseline study establishes options for the NPRC
progress indicators design and processes upon which
the Commission and Civic Society Organisations
(CSOs) will track achievements.
During Gukurahundi (1982-87), it is estimated that
twenty thousands of people were killed and many
more tortured and terrorised before a peace deal was
brokered between ZANU-PF and PF-ZAPU (Patriotic
Front - Zimbabwe African People’s Union), which led
to the creation of an amalgamated ZANU-PF and a de
facto one-party state under President Robert Mugabe
(CCJP, 1997). It is also important to note that the
notion of ‘not knowing’ remains part of the legacy
of avoidance and denial that has characterised
the Zimbabwean State’s response to dealing with
the violations. It is therefore, imperative that an
understanding of the histories of the two liberation
movements, ZAPU and ZANU, be undertaken to fully
appreciate what transpired in Matabeleland during
this terrible time. Concerns relating to injustices and
impunity and allegations of state complicity in human
rights violations have gone unattended for years.
Since Independence, judicial-executive relations have
been systematically eroded and torture has been
co-opted as an alternative to law, ironically by state
security. Reconciliation should therefore be seen to
be interrogating these artificial representations of the
‘peace versus justice’ that promote these approaches.
1. Zimbabwe’s Conflict Legacy and
Implications for Transitional Justice
Zimbabwe’s gross human rights record spans a long
history which encompasses the pre-colonial, colonial
and post-colonial experiences. Sensitivity about human
rights violations in Zimbabwe must be informed by an
appreciation of the background and context in which
they arose and of the evolving relationships within
and between the diverse players involved. Human
rights denial has also been linked to the asymmetrical
power regimes, polarised ideologies and legitimation
of narratives associated with the ruling class and
the opposing voices. While the pre-independence
brutalities were largely Rhodesian-led and anti-black,
there were lots of black against black atrocities,
maiming and betrayal in the post-independence
era. The liberation movements equally suffered, but
more vulnerable were the civilians. Except for the
powerfully illustrated 1987 report by the Catholic
Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), little
documentation has been done of the liberation and
post-independence war crimes since there were no
judicial proceedings instituted to address the crimes.
Therefore, with the adoption of the new constitution
in 2013, that recognises the need for national peace
and reconciliation, justifies the essence of developing
a baseline upon which the NPRC will draw for
operational effectiveness and buy in.
The damage caused by the Gukurahundi in
Matabeleland continues to reverberate as carryforward injustice. To date, the findings of the
government-sponsored Chihambakwe Commission
of Inquiry (set in 1985) into the violations have not
been made public, nor have any efforts been made
to compensate the victims. Many of the alleged
perpetrators, including leaders and planners of
the violations, continue to hold senior positions in
government security and political structures, setting
the stage for the recurrence of violence and pile-up of
grievances. Starting in 2000 and with the emergence
and evolution of political opposition, a qualitative
difference in the nature of repression emerged. This
included the government’s introduction of increasingly
harsh and repressive policies and laws that have
effectively suffocated political opposition and pluralist
debate. The integrity of the legal system and its
downstream institutions has been systematically
undermined and manipulated for partisan interests of
government against its adversaries.
According to Auret (in Joint CSO Johannesburg
Conference on Zimbabwe, 2003) the underpinnings
for impunity were laid during the independence
negotiations at Lancaster House, where a policy of
Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013) Section 232e and 251-253)
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