Mlondolozi Ndlovu

Three NGOs in the country namely; the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET) Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT) Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ) have called upon the government of Zimbabwe to start the operationalization of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) failure to which they will take the government to the constitutional court.

In a statement released by the four organisations they noted that it was now three years since Zanu PF was voted into power with parties already preparing for the 2018 elections whilst nothing had been done to see that the commission operationalises.

“ Concerned that the country is currently witnessing abductions, cases of politically motivated intra-party and inter-party violence and also realizing that political actors have already started preparing for 2018 elections cases of harassment, intimidation and organized violence continue to be recorded” read the statement

The non- governmental organisations noted that Zimbabwe was experiencing ‘calm’ and that there is ‘negative’ peace in the country which calls for the individuals and authorities to set up the commission which will investigate cases of violence in the country and contribute to peace.

They noted that the current violence which occurred in Harare South was a clear indication that the country was going in the ‘wrong direction’ and hence thee need to set up the NPRC to avert the crisis.
The NGOs urged the government to speedily appoint the commissioners for this organ noting they was need for a law to support this organ.

“ While the executive has conducted interviews for the possible commissioners, we call upon the executive to finalise the appointment of commissioners and urge the responsible ministry to put expeditiously in place an enabling law that will ensure that NPRC becomes operation” they said.