Speaking at a talk show organised by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on Wednesday, ZimRights Director, Okay Machisa, said it was highly likely that people would explode.
“It’s a possibility that such elements can come when their issues are not addressed. The delay of justice would provoke these people,”
Machisa said, warning however that taking the law into their own hands would cause further torment as they would be arrested and prosecuted.
The talk show was discussing the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill which recently went through the committee stage in parliament after cabinet agreed to expedite it.
The Bill seeks to limit the jurisdiction of the commission to the post-2008 era, despite many human rights having been committed against innocent citizens prior to that.
Machisa insisted the commission must stretch back to the early days of independence that was attained in 1980 and also cover the politically motivated murders, tortures, rape and other excesses that occurred in 2008 during a presidential runoff from which MDC-T President Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew.
Machisa cited the example of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia which was established in 2003 but had a jurisdiction going back to 1979.
“So in other words we are saying if you are saying the human rights commission which is going to be in operation in Zimbabwe is as good as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, why are you putting a cutoff date two years down the line?” he queried.
The ZimRights director said the people who were murdered, maimed and had their properties destroyed would one day demand explanations from politicians who were making decisions on their behalf without consulting them.
“We are speaking representing the people whose hands have been cut off. We are actually representing the people whose houses were burnt,” he said.
However, representatives of the two MDC’s, Douglas Mwonzora and Qobani Moyo, as well as Zanu PF’s Patrick Chinamsa, defended the cutoff date, saying it was in the people’s interests as it helped prevent further conflict.
“We negotiated amongst the political parties and one of the core issues that we had to discuss was the cutoff date. As Minister of Justice, and being a lawyer, I proceeded from a position which says all good laws and the rule of law are about the present and the future,” Chinamasa said.
Mwonzora, however, said the MDC- T had agreed to the cutoff date after realizing that there were chances that the new constitution would provide for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“The reason why we have agreed to the cut off date is because we are certain that there could be another organ to deal with what we are worried about,” he said.
He admitted that the victims’ demands, which were echoed during outreach, had not been included in the Bill. “The views were unequivocal. They wanted the commission to be independent and they didn’t want the cutoff date,” Mwonzora said.
Moyo, who is the Director of Policy Research and Coordination in the smaller MDC, said the Bill was the best they could do as it was not possible to put a law that would investigate the same people who were making it.
He said laws would be put in place to deal with the issues not covered by the Bill when the time was ripe. “It wasn’t possible to apply the law going backwards now,” he said.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill, which was passed in Parliament last week and is now being debated in the Senate, where it is expected to pass, seeks to operationalise the Human Rights Commission which was established in 2009.
Post published in: News