Parliament has been urged to craft an enabling law in order to operationalise the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC).
VENERANDA LANGA
Last week, several candidates were interviewed to fill the eight vacant posts in the commission.
The Church and Civic Society Forum (CCSF) in a statement this week called on Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko, who is in charge of the National Healing portfolio, to ensure a law was crafted to enable the commission to start its work without further delay.
“We continue to urge the Minister of National Healing,Vice-President Mphoko, the Attorney-General, and Parliament to speedily enact an enabling Act to give life to the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission,” the civic society group said.
“The CCSF is concerned with delays in the enactment of an enabling law to operationalise the NPRC in view of its 10-year lifespan as provided for in the Constitution.”
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum also expressed concern over delays in crafting laws to operationalise the NPRC.
“The slow progress towards the implementation of the Constitution has continued to throw some doubt over the government’s sincerity towards issues of truth, justice and accountability. More than a year and a half after the effective date of the new Constitution, the NPRC is yet to be constituted and the enabling legislation yet to be enacted. This is despite the NPRC having a prescriptive period of 10 years,” the forum said.
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The human rights defenders said operationalising the NPRC was essential because the right to truth was yet to be realised in Zimbabwe in order to deal with issues of various episodes of violations characterised by our history such as Gukurahundi, Operation Murambatsvina, pre and post-election violence and others.
Some of the functions of the NPRC include ensuring post-conflict justice, healing and reconciliation, developing and implementing programmes to promote national healing, unity and cohesion in Zimbabwe and the peaceful resolution of disputes, to develop programmes to ensure that persons subjected to persecution, torture and other forms of abuse receive rehabilitative treatment and support, and others.
