Gukurahundi rears its ugly head again as Parliament discusses Mphoko’s Peace and Reconciliation bill- Part Three

The other issue is that in this whole process, violence has always had a gender dimension and we are saying the majority of the people who have been affected are women.  So, the peace building process must try by whatever means possible to make sure that they become sensitive and capture the gender dimension.  At the same time, there are people during this process who were excluded politically, economically and socially.  The majority of these people are women. The peace building process must mainstream all these people because they were excluded.  That is where issues of devolution come into play; power must be devolved to provinces so that every Zimbabwean has an equal share of the cake.  The point that I am trying to raise here is that, let the peace building process mainstream gender so that issues to do with gender are taken into consideration; like I said that women are the ones who have been affected in the majority. 

The last issue that I would like to raise has to do with the existence and the term of office of the Commission.   According to the Constitution, the Commission is to exist for 10 years.  If we look at what is happening right now, four years have already been lost.  How are those four years going to be compensated?  Are we going to amend the Constitution because it is a constitutional matter so that the four years are incorporated, or are you going to do something to make sure that those four years lost are incorporated?  I do not think that the Commission will be able to do this work in six years because this is a mammoth task Mr. Speaker Sir; a lot has to be done.   I said earlier on that we want this process to be done in an open and transparent manner so that we have peace and tranquility in this country.  Whilst there is peace and tranquility, this country is going to develop for the good of every Zimbabwean. I rest my case.

HON. MAJOME: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for this opportunity to debate the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission Bill which is one of those Bills that will give us an opportunity as Zimbabweans to be able to implement our Constitution.    I must say through you Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to express my pleasure at the presence of the Hon. Vice President and Minister of National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation, Hon. Mphoko for gracing this House in order for this debate to be heard.  That is exactly as it should be and I am pleased that he will hear the concerns we have.

Mr. Speaker Sir, I also want to really commence my debate and further to the Chairperson’s report and the views of those who have debated before me,  I believe – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – I believe it will be

THE HON. SPEAKER: Order at the back there, we need to follow what the Hon. Member is saying.

HON. MAJOME:  I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.  It will be remiss of me to begin expressing my views about the content of this particular Bill without also expressing my strongly and deeply held views about the other issues around the process of coming up with this Bill.  It is no secret that this is the second attempt to bring a Bill before the Hon. House on the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission.  I talk about this because this particular Commission that the Bill refers to is one Commission whose lifetime is ephemeral.   It is the only Commission in the Constitution that has a timeframe, as the Leader of the Opposition in the House Hon. Khupe has said before me that the Constitution, as Hon. Members are aware, provides that there shall be a National Peace and Reconciliation Commission for a period of 10 years after the effective date.  The effective date is defined as the date upon which His Excellency, the President assumed office after the general election of 2013.

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