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By Joyce Mukucha
The Peace Committees that work closely with the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) are sustaining the initiative in structures at the districts, constituencies, ward, and village levels to ensure that all levels.
Speaking on behalf of Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Honourable Oliver Chidau during the Preventive Dialogue Provincial Peace Committee meeting in Harare recently, the Harare Provincial Development Coordinator (PDC) Tafadzwa Muguti implored Peace Committees to play a crucial role in fostering healing, reconciliation, peacebuilding, conflict prevention and well as identifying and dealing with potential triggers of conflicts to make sure that a sustainable and a harmonious nation is built for all generations.
He emphasised that the achievement of peace and harmony among citizens is a key enabler for the attainment of the country’s Vision 2030 of becoming an Upper-Middle Income Economy thus the need for everyone particularly peace committees to formulate strategic partnerships and linkages to achieve socio-economic dreams and aspirations as a nation.
Violent conflicts, he said, before and after the independence have negatively impacted not only on development but also on the social cohesion among Zimbabweans highlighting that these unresolved conflicts need to be addressed in order to have a cohesive nation.
“The setting up of Peace Committees to contribute towards the promotion of peace through dialogue, mediation and conciliation of disputes among communities, individuals and groups as well as the implementation of programmes deemed necessary for the prevention of conflicts all fall squarely within the Constitutional mandate of NPRC.
“Let us all heed the calls from all corners of the country for Zimbabweans to unite, reduce polarization, minimise hate speech even on social media. As members of the Commission, we should be the first to counter such speech and promote love, respect, our value of Ubuntu, and celebrate our differences and affiliations.
“We should be the first to condemn divisive political and resource-based conflicts and facilitate closure to past national conflicts, restore trust and confidence in ourselves as a people. This is a bedrock upon which true peace, healing, reconciliation, and cohesion in society can be founded. Remember peacebuilding is about promoting healing, rehabilitation, reconciliation, unity, social cohesion, and peaceful resolution of conflicts in Zimbabwe without external interference. We can dialogue until we resolve our differences amicably,” said Muguti.
The PDC also stated that peacebuilding was everyone’s job from Government to every citizen in the country regardless of age, gender, race, religion, politics, and region.
The peacebuilding journey, he pointed out, is also consistent with the major thrust of the National Development Strategy 1 which seeks to promote inclusive dialogue and tolerance among citizens, promotes peacebuilding initiatives among communities, and strengthen citizen engagement through establishment of local peace committees such as the Provincial and District Peace Committees.
He also stressed the need for Peace Committees to reflect on the upcoming elections and develop provincial plans of the preventive actions that will be taken to ensure peace, unity, and cohesion, review other conflicts affecting social cohesion in the province and develop strategies and approaches to addressing them.
“Currently, there is an increasing shift in focus to the 2023 elections. In order to guarantee non-recurrence of perennial elections-related conflicts, the onus is on you to engage robustly and deliberately in preventive dialogues with all stakeholders to ensure that re-emergence of the past experiences are curtailed,” he said.
Muguti also pointed out that the past two years, the global Covid-19 pandemic has hit the underprivileged and marginalised groups the hardest and as a result, people were caught in conflicts especially the vulnerable in terms of lack of access to healthcare, socio-political rights as well as livelihoods support.
In line with this, he urged the committees to craft strategies that enable sharing of conflicts experiences during Covid-19 restrictions a d measures to curb that in the future ensuring that no one is left behind.
“As Peace Committees it is your role to be observant and intervene whenever and wherever possible. The pandemic has also been also accompanied by a surge in stigma, discrimination, unresolved disputes, and hatred which only cost more lives instead of saving them. Covid-19 has also made Zimbabweans aware of the need to come up with measures to address conflicts at a local level hence emphasis on the preventative dialogues.”
He also applauded the Peace Committees in all provinces for continuing to work tirelessly in organising and facilitating the smooth flow of peace operations since 2019.
“Two years down the line, these local infrastructures for peace in every province around the country are becoming more solid, proactive, and visible. The Commission is proud to work with all of you and remain grateful for your unwavering commitment to building a peaceful Zimbabwe for all generations.”
The NPRC was established to precisely facilitate that dialogue in resolving past conflicts and guarantee a future of non-recurrence.