Service chiefs snub national healing
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 14 April 2011 21:35
Brian Chitemba
SECURITY ministers and service chiefs snubbed Vice-President John Nkomo and
ministers responsible for the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation
who had summoned them last week to a meeting to address selective
application of the law and political violence.
National Healing and Reconciliation co-minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu told
guests at the Independent Dialogue in Bulawayo on Wednesday that Nkomo last
week tried in vain to summon Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, State
Security minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Home Affairs co-ministers Kembo
Mohadi and Theresa Makone as well as Defence Forces commander Constantine
Chiwenga, army commander Philip Sibanda, police Commissioner-General
Augustine Chihuri and CIO director-general Happyton Bonyongwe.
Ndlovu was speaking to participants at the Independent Dialogue, which is
organised by the Zimbabwe Independent, under the theme Transitional
Justice — how do we bring to closure atrocities of the past? at the Bulawayo
Club.
Ndlovu said he and co-minister Sekai Holland had sought Nkomo’s
intervention, but came up against a red flag since the service chiefs report
directly to President Robert Mugabe.
“There is contempt for the organ by the security apparatus because they
receive instructions from elsewhere…their questions to you (Patrick)
Chinamasa and (Nicholas) Goche where, are these instructions coming from
because Mugabe, (Prime Minister) Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube are in
agreement that violence must come to an end. Without institutional reforms
national healing is not possible,” said Mzila-Ndlovu.
The security chiefs have openly declared their allegiance to Mugabe and Zanu
PF vowing never to salute anyone without liberation war credentials.
Ndlovu said national healing could only be achieved if the security
institutions were reformed through retraining of the police, army and
intelligence officers to respect the rule of law and human rights.
The minister told the gathering that he was barred from addressing a
national healing meeting organised by a non-governmental organisation in
Kezi, Matabeleland South, on Tuesday after police dispersed villagers.
He also bemoaned the lack of authority of ministers, whom he said were
constantly harassed by junior policemen.
“We don’t have power because constables do as they please. They tell a
cabinet minister that he can’t address an important meeting. We also know
that the army can instruct the police to arrest Zanu PF opponents. That’s
how bad things are although we wonder if Mugabe really knows what is
happening in communities,” said Ndlovu.
Participants at the dialogue were unanimous that the organ of national
healing and reconciliation had failed to achieve anything since its
inception at the formation of the inclusive government.
“The organ of national healing has not addressed key issues regarding
emotional and psychological torture that people experienced during the
Gukurahundi period. Nothing has been done so far,” said MDC-N in Bulawayo
spokesman Nhlanhla Dube.
MDC organising secretary Qubani Moyo echoed Ndlovu’s sentiments and
suggested that there was an urgent need to reform the security sector which
is highly partisan.
He said they were running all the arms of the government with the blessing
of Mugabe who rewarded most of them for committing atrocities in
Matabeleland and Midlands during the Gukurahundi killings in the 1980s.
“It is sad that security men who killed and maimed people in the
Matabeleland region were rewarded by becoming heads of departments giving
the wrong impression to the youths that for one to be a hero they have to
kill. We don’t need to be brutal to be rewarded,” said Moyo.
The North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade and the dreaded CIO were deployed in
Matabeleland and Midlands to deal with Mugabe’s opponents and dissidents in
the mid 1980s.