The USA Embassy played host to a very lively discussion on Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe, based upon a national survey report compiled by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. Shastry Njeru, Manager of the Transitional Justice Section in this organization, presented the findings of the report. This presentation was facilitated by Leon Hartwell, a South African academic, passionate about African politics.

Transitional justice refers to legal or non-legal processes in which past violations are systematically addressed. It is a deliberate process of addressing the wrongs of the past.  Though used synonymously with ‘national healing’, the term refers to a more definitive process, focusing more on righting past wrongs than on just forgiveness and getting over the past.

Njeru reiterated the need for the process to begin, expressing hope that the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, would come up with policy framework for management of a National Healing Process soon. Njeru believes Zimbabwe needs transitional justice because it has gone through several violent processes, namely,

Colonization
Liberation struggle
Post-independence disturbances & atrocities (Matabeleland & Midlands)
Other processes after the Unity Accord
Land reform
Murambatsvina
2008 elections

He feels that the ideal transitional justice model for Zimbabwe will draw from both western and traditional models, striking a context-driven balance, in order to achieve results that are legitimate to the citizens of this country

Njeru outlined countrywide outreach efforts of the Human Rights NGO Forum, from 2009 to date, including the Taking Transitional Justice to the People project, focused on seeking opinions of Zimbabweans and clearly showed that most Zimbabweans want restorative as opposed to retributive (revenge) resolutions. The Transitional Justice, National Survey continued on from this, and with the use of scientific research and selection tools 3189 randomly selected people were interviewed on what they thought was important for transitional justice.

Their findings

49% – effective healing can be achieved through compensation.
13% – perpetrators need to openly ask forgiveness.

Who’s responsible for compensation?
24% – individual perpetrators
(The majority of which have nothing themselves)
55% – Government
(Which essentially means the people of Zimbabwe, through taxes)

Who leads process?
60% – churches & government.
(But, which church(s)?

Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration the second, least-trusted to lead process.
(Due to lack of awareness?)

Which periods addressed?

41% – from 2000 onward.
18% – from just after Independence onward.
14% – from the Liberation Struggle onward.
1821
Below 45% – indifferent to questions.
(Due to fear and lack of awareness).

Recommendations for the way forward

Encourage awareness and further discourse through outreach programmes.
Use more victim-centered approaches in further programmes.
Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration needs to spread awareness and encourage discussions.

He concluded by saying that Zimbabweans would have to do the work by demanding more on the part of government, civil society and communities, to engage in the issue, and that if past issues are not addressed now, it will become more costly in the future.

Leon Hartwell’s comments

“A lot of people assume… that democratic elections in Zimbabwe will solve your problems… I don’t think that will happen. Looking at the past, if we don’t [properly] deal with transitional justice, violence will happen again.”

Hartwell believes that despite the nature and results of upcoming elections, unless something concrete happens, transitional justice will become meaningless and that Zimbabwe can no longer drag out the issue.

He naturally, drew parallels to South Africa’s TRC process, asking if it might be one way Zimbabwe can approach transitional justice. Although he stated that the TRC helped to bridge the transition process in SA, with over 21,000 people breaking the silence on apartheid, he admitted to its eventual failure. He said, even though it “did not get the complete truth…it [the process] gave a more complete picture of the truth”. South Africa still has a long way to go, and Hartwell said that the country has much to learn from Zimbabwe, and that his country is having discussions now, that Zimbabwe had in the 90s.  He concluded by that the process will meet with resistance and it is important for civil society to keep the debate alive, in spite of it.

Visualise Us

Directed by Jamie McLaren.

The Memory of Water

A dramatic comedy

Written by: Shelagh Stevenson

Starring: Danielle Connolly, Chipo Chikara, Maria Wilson, Lara Hundermark, Joe Levey and Josh Ansley

19th – 29th October at 7pm
Matinees 22nd and 29th at 2:30

Reps Theatre Upstairs

Tickets available at The Spotlight

$5 on Wednesday; $10 all other performances

PG 15

Gone are the days of money changing and diamonds at Marange and in comes business of semen. After exhausting all means of making an honest living some lazy women have turned to raping and stealing men’s semen. Recently there were reports of women moving around the country in fancy cars soliciting sex from men and then raping them at gunpoint and taking their semen. Some men often find it difficult to come out openly and report cases of rape, so some women have taken advantage of this to go on a raping spree and hijacking semen to sell. It is no longer a secret that men are also being sexually abused by women and its high time that men speak out against the abuse. The most scary and painful part to the rape victims (men) is the fact of getting raped and then having your semen stolen from you and not having a clue about where and what it is going to be used for.

The idea of getting rich quick has influenced some parts of the young generation to go that extra mile of earning a living without breaking a sweat. Just like in the North African movies where “muti” or black magic is potrayed as a way of getting rich quick, these ideas, and an element of laziness have engulfed and brain washed the young generation in Zimbabwe to the extent that crime is now being committed in pursuit of money and a good life. Recently police in Gweru arrested a group of female rape suspects with a consignment of used condoms filled with semen. People who were interviewed narrated how these young women were enjoying fancy lifestyles. These women were being admired but people didn’t know they were into the semen business.

So to all men who have been victims of rape please speak out – be a man about it!

“It is easy to be independent when you’ve got money. But to be independent when you haven’t got a thing–that’s the Lord’s test.”
Mahalia Jackson

These words have really challenged me, as I hope they will challenge many of you. It makes me think of women of the old school, like my mother, who, though widowed early on in her married life, worked hard and struggled on, to look after us, independently. But it seems that women like this are now a dying-breed. When I think about the young women of Zimbabwe, I feel frightened. Even though some of us are ambitious, hardworking and fairly, independent, the majority of us are far from even being able to take care of ourselves, on a very basic level. Times are hard, and with unemployment levels topping 90%, being an independent young woman, is far easier said than done.

Despite how hopeless our economic situation seems I feel as though many young women are not even bothered with independence anymore. Faced, with such a tough economic environment, a lot of us have found it easier to just expect someone else to look after us, with many young women giving up on independence, and instead, seeking out moneyed men to look after them. These young women are making use of their erotic power to get men to take care of them, and in so doing, freeing themselves from the responsibility of their own lives. What these women don’t realise it that they are creating their own monsters.

I mean common sense should tell you that you can’t rightly expect to receive resources without paying for them. All along, unbeknownst to you, the metre has been running. It may not happen today, but eventually your sponsor will get their money’s worth. One may decide to beat it out of you, while another feels that he now has a licence to control you, and another still feels that it gives him the right not to use a condom. And how can you say no to him, when he has supported you for the last year or so. Of course, you can’t say no to him now. You feel beholden, and will therefore comply, right.  And what happens if one day he shows up, and asks for it all back. Unotangira pai? Where will you even begin to source this money?

One of my aunts, a very wise woman, once told me, “Never accept something from a man that you can’t afford to give back.” This advice might be a little extreme, but I think that one lesson we have to learn from it is to not let ourselves be dis-empowered in relationships, by not being independently functional, at the very least.

Visualise Us