Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara have launched National Healing week on Friday 24 July. For the next three days the nation is to pray and seriously think about “forgiving” all those who violated fellow Zimbabweans’ human rights, according to the GNU’s position.
We all know what the root cause of the politically motivated violence is – it is to retain political power at all cost including the use of intimidation and violence. Politically motivated violence have been sanctioned at State level and those responsible for these acts have been placed above the law.
We have the absurd situation where the Police, the Courts and the whole legal process have again and again failed to protect the victims of lawlessness.
So if we are serious about National Healing then we must do two things:
1) Carry out the necessary reforms of the Police, Judiciary and all the other corrupted national organs and institutions so that the Police, Judges, etc. carry out their public duties without fear or favour.
2) Carry out through investigations of past violations and punish those responsible and compensate the victims or their dependents. This must be done within the legal framework of the Courts and not individuals setting out to settle old scores. This will demonstrate beyond doubt that the rule of law has been re-established and establish a precedence that those who break the law whilst in position of power will, someday, be asked to account for their past crimes.
Of course Mugabe does not want to see any institutional reforms in the Police, Army, Judiciary, etc. He would like these institution to remain partisan and loyal to him and his objective of retain political power at all cost. There have been reports that the Police Commissioner. Augustine Chihuri, sacked over 1000 Police Officers who had dared investigate Zanu PF instigated political violence!
Mugabe’s ability to cause political havoc just as he did last year and in the past is as strong as ever. The National Healing Mugabe is after is that the nation should simply forget what he and his thugs did in the past and that we should close our eyes to the ever present threat of him doing exactly the same tomorrow.
“Greater unity is the basis of your strength,” Mugabe said, “the basis of your power of self- preservation; the basis on which we can resist external interference in order to protect ourselves from those external institutions and interests which always look for opportunities to divide and tear us apart as a people.”
It is what Mugabe wants in this GNU that counts, not that Tsvangirai and Mutambara had any strong position beyond the usual lip-services calls for justice for the former.
“There can be no truth without justice and no justice without truth” said Tsvangirai. “National healing cannot occur without justice and justice must be done, as well as be seen to be done.”
Mutambara said his empty rhetoric. “Never again in this country should Zimbabweans brutalise and slaughter each other because of political differences,” he said. “We must establish within Zimbabwe a ‘never again’ framework. We seek no revenge, we seek no retribution in our country.” How are you proposing creating this “never again” framework, stupid? Not by letting the dictator doing as he pleases.
The official position of the Ministry of National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration is to focus on forgiveness that, the nation is told is “true Zimbabwean way”!
In short nothing, absolutely nothing, is going to be done to end Zanu PF’s culture political motivated violence. Of course in the coming months the GNU will raise a big dust storm about National Healing, etc. and Mugabe will deliver more long speeches about political unity and the threat from outside Zimbabwe’s boarders. Sadly, that is true Mugabe way of doing things!
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