The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) is โdeliberatelyโ taking too long to bring about post-conflict justice, healing and reconciliation, a Bulawayo based local pressure group, Ibhetshu LikaZulu has said.
Ibhetshu LikaZulu argues the NPRC has spent most of its time holding consultative meetings instead of taking decisive action, which appears to be a delaying tactic so that issues such as Gukurahundi remain unsolved.
NRPC is one of the five independent commissions established under Zimbabweโs constitution, whose objective is to promote national healing and reconciliation.
It was supposed to come into force on August 22, 2013, but the commission was only operationalised through an Act of Parliament on January 5, 2018, with its mandate scheduled to end in 2023. The High Court later extended its operational period to 2028.
In recent reports, NPRC spokesperson, Commissioner Advocate Obert Gutu said the newly reconstituted commission would start healing consultations with various stakeholders, starting from Harare before proceeding to other provinces.
In an interview with CITE, Ibhetshu LikaZulu Secretary-General, Mbuso Fuzwayo, accused the government of manipulating the NPRC and engaging in time-wasting tactics.
โWe must look at what the master is trying to achieve, the master is buying time, if you look at what the NPRC has achieved in the past five years, you see a lot of time was spent doing consultations. Itโs clear they want to spend another 10 years without reaching out to victims,โ he said.
Fuzwayo lamented that instead of healing the victims, time was โwastedโ on consultations, which was not the set-out intention of the NPRC.
โPlus there has been a creation of many confusing bodies, whose intention is buying time rather than addressing the problem. Itโs not surprising and is now clear that the executive is buying time. It does not want to account,โ said the human rights activist.
โThe executive does not want to address the problems that are affecting people. So Zimbabweans must be clear that the 10-year lifespan of the NPRC has achieved nothing and will achieve nothing.โ
Fuzwayo further argued that the failure of the NPRC to carry out its mandate was by design.
โItโs not by accident that the executive has manipulated everything. It has created parallel structures, one day they say the (Matabeleland) Collective the next day say the chiefs will do this and that. All these things are not by accident, itโs intentional,โ Fuzwayo said.
โThe question is when are you going to reach out to the victims of Gukurahundi because if you are to spend a lot of time saying, โyou will be consulting people in Harare,โ why doesnโt the NPRC build many teams that will go to the ground and reach out to many people.โ
Fuzwayo noted that one of the key issues was addressing the mass killings, whereas three decades had passed without accountability and justice.
โIt has been over 30 years and the concerned people are dying. If the NPRC was sincere they were going to prioritise Gukurahundi because itโs a genocide,โ he said.
โBut well because politically thereโs no willingness, the perpetrator is in charge and itโs not surprising that victims will die without receiving closure.โ
