The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) has started holding its outreach meetings with communities in Matabeleland with the aim of unpacking its strategic plan and solicit for will seek citizens’ views on how to implement its programmes.
On Tuesday the NPRC visited Lupane, where it would hold a strategic stakeholder engagement at the community hall with members of civil society and political parties and will meet with community members on Wednesday.
The commission is set to unpack its strategic plan and priority areas set for implementation this year.
These priority areas include the issue of assisting people to acquire birth certificates, as there are a number of people in Matabeleland who have no proper documentation.
In an interview with CITE, NPRC Commissioner, Leslie Ncube confirmed that members of the community would be given an opportunity to state what areas the commission should focus on first.
“To a larger extent, we will unpack our strategic plan to the community so that they understand exactly what we intend to do. The commission will also seek guidance from the people on how we must handle all the programmes within our strategic plan,” he said.
The commission has a list of priority areas they want to look into but is aware that people may have other ideas.
“This is why we urge people to come and participate in this process because we may, according to our plan, work on priority areas we ourselves set in terms for implementation in 2019 while communities may point out something else. For example, one of our priorities was the issue of birth certificates so now we want people to tell us how they want us to go about the whole matter,” Ncube noted.
He added that people must inform the NPRC what to prioritise immediately, as the commission has a series of programmes it would like to roll out.
“There is the topical issue of reburials so the people must tell us how to deal with such sensitive issues.”
In a recent interview with CITE, NPRC chairperson Justice Selo Nare revealed that exhumations of victims of the Gukurahundi massacres will start on May 27 in Sipepa, Tsholotsho.
After Lupane, the commission sets its sights on Gwanda, where it would engage first with stakeholders on April 25 and engage with the community the following day.
