Commission has gone on an outreach collecting public views and has since developed a 5-year strategic plan. groups regard the President’s Office as instrumental in serious human rights violations. Before the 2018 Elections, the NPRC facilitated the signing of the Peace Pledge which brought together presidential candidates to commit to peaceful elections. iii. Running out of time – Almost 6 years since the Constitution became operational, apart from the Executive Secretary, the NPRC has not been able to put together the full complement of its secretariat. This has resulted in the NPRC failing to deliver on its mandate. With a life span of 10 years, it is taking the NPRC almost 6 years to simply put together its structures. This failure is attributable to resource starvation by the government of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has since approached the courts seeking for a declaration on the life span of the Commission. b. Challenges facing the NPRC i. Resource Starvation - The NPRC has continued to face a number of challenges. Since the NPRC Act became law, the NPRC still struggles to roll out an effective programme of action because of resource starvation. The government has continued to deprive the NPRC of resources to enable it to roll out its operations. This has hampered recruitment of staff, acquisition of offices and running of operations. This state of affairs seems to be the government’s deliberate attempt to paralyse the operations of the commission. ii. Lack of independence - Section 234 of the Constitution gives the NPRC power to hire and fire its own Secretariat. This means that the Commission must develop its own recruitment policy, draft its own needs, job descriptions, advertise and hire competent staff without being directed by anyone. Section 14 of the NPRC Act provides that the Commission shall, in consultation with the Minister (responsible for national healing) and the Minister responsible for Finance, create the Commission’s staff. This process has opened the process to government interference in the recruitment process. Some stakeholders expressed the fears that the NPRC may be forced to hire people who are too close to the President’s Office, a matter that has the potential to jeopardise the credibility of the Secretariat. Many victim 3 c. Way Forward for the NPRC Commissions like the NPRC depend not only on legal legitimacy, but on the confidence of the people especially victim groups. The NPRC must be encouraged to carry out its operations in a manner that clearly shows that it is independent of Government. Doing this will require the NPRC to hire a truly independent Secretariat. The Government of Zimbabwe must be encouraged to ensure that the NPRC has enough resources to carry out its mandate. The Commission must be encouraged to stand on principle and avoid any conduct that may seem to suggest that its independence is compromised. d. Civil Society Interventions On 4 November 2018, the National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG) issued a briefing note on the recruitment process, warning that… ‘It will be a violation of the NPRC’s constitutional independence for any organ of the state or another body to try to influence who will serve the Secretariat of STATE OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 2018 REPORT NATIONAL TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE WORKING GROUP ZIMBABWE