5.5.2. How Communities Want to See the NPRC Function
Participants were asked what they think
Zimbabwean citizens actually want to see
the NPRC doing within their communities.
The investigation provides specific attitudes,
behaviours and processes that should be
exhibited and undertaken by the NPRC.
Respondents’ views addressed institutional
architectural and remedial-operational
issues they would want to see the NPRC
providing to the communities. Institutional/
structural issues include decentralisation of
the NPRC offices, independent operations
and collaboration or synergies with other
government departments and the civic
society.
A total of 20% of the survey respondents
mentioned that they were motivated to see
the NPRC facilitating peace, unity dialogue
while 19.7% of the respondents said they
wanted to see the NPRC promoting
accountability, transparency and truthtelling. A total of 1.1% of the respondents
said they least expect to see the NPRC
facilitating political change. These views
were also expressed by interviewees and
focus group participants.
Profiling and Archiving:
Some respondents expected the NPRC to
profile the stories of victims and perpetrators
of violence within communities as part of
their investigation of issues. Respondents
suggested that profiling would ensure
that accounts of what happened and the
magnitude of the violations are correctly
captured.
“
from national to local, there is
need to investigate all violations
and profiling the victims’ cases
because some of the violations took
place when the victims had run
away from the scene.”
42 RECONCILIATION PROCESSES IN ZIMBABWE
To
buttress
this
suggestion,
one
respondent said “from national to local,
there is need to investigate all violations
and profiling the victims’ cases because
some of the violations took place when
the victims had run away from the scene.”
This experience shows the importance of
thorough investigations and capturing
correct accounts of what happened during
the occurrence of the violations before
providing remedial solutions to each case
as there could be different accounts told
by witnesses, the perpetrators and victims.
Decentralised institutions and
engagement with other government
departments
As observed earlier in Table 5 communities
want to see the NPRC operating at the
lowest community level to increase access to
the Commission’s services and to promote
horizontal community level reconciliation
processes. One respondent said “the NPRC
should use the JOMIC template and include
the ZRP, to provincial, district and wards.”
While calling for the JOMIC template, it is
notable that the respondent alluded to the
involvement of the Zimbabwe Republic
Police which is part of the government first
line law enforcement agency.
This means there is also need to have
mechanisms that include government
departments in the reconciliation processes.
This is further illustrated in the comment
from one respondent that:
The NPRC should link with other government
departments. An inter-ministerial committee
including the local government ministry,
traditional leaders, the Ministry of Gender
and Community Development, social welfare
departments and home affairs can be set up
to work with the NPRC. It will be an interministerial network for the protection of
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