GOVERNMENT has fully complied with recommendations of the
Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry into the August 1, 2018 post-election violence,
a senior official has said.
The Commission of Inquiry —which was chaired by former
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe — gave four broad recommendations
which included compensation of the victims’ families, electoral reforms,
political co-existence and security sector reforms.
President Mnangagwa immediately set up a high-level
Inter-Ministerial Committee on Political and Electoral reforms to facilitate
the implementation of the recommendations.
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Permanent
Secretary Mrs Virginia Mabhiza, who was also the Commission’s secretary, told
The Sunday Mail that the commission’s recommendations had been implemented.
“Four key issues ranging from compensation of the victims’
families, electoral reforms, political dialogue and security sector reforms
came out as the key recommendations from the Motlanthe Commission,” said Mrs
Mabhiza.
“There has been a lot of compliance. We have complied fully
with the Motlanthe Commission, but some of the processes are still ongoing.
Though the Covid-19 lockdown has delayed implementation of some of the
recommendations, we have covered a lot of ground.
“To a large extent, we have complied with recommendations
of the commission though some of the issues remain work in progress.”
She said the establishment of the Political Actors Dialogue
(POLAD) was in fulfilment of the recommendation on initiating civil political
co-existence, adding that several parties outside the dialogue platform were
requesting to be included.
“For political co-existence you can see that POLAD is very
much on the ground,” Mrs Mabhiza said.
“One major recommendation from the Motlanthe Commission was
that political parties should dialogue. All political parties have converged
and are dialoguing progressively. Only a few are not part of the dialogue.
“POLAD is also getting a lot of applications from other
parties that want to be part of the platform, which means on the ground
dialogue is taking place.”
She said in terms of legislative reforms, laws such as the
Public Order and Security Act (POSA) have already been repealed while others
that were considered undemocratic are in theprocess of being dismantled.
These include the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA), whose successor laws are at different stages of legislation
in Parliament.
“In terms of laws, Parliament is working on a number of
issues that are pertinent, especially for electoral processes.”
Mrs Mabhiza said on compensation, some of the victims’
families had not approached the Department of Social Welfare for assistance.
Compensation for the families of the victims of the
violence includes school fees support for minor children and medical bills.
Some of the businesses that were damaged have received financial support from
Government.
“When the report came out we had physical communication
with the victims’ relatives and families whom we told of the procedures to
follow through social welfare in order to get compensation,” said Mrs Mabhiza.
“As the Ministry of Justice we are not responsible for
payments; payments are processed through (Ministry of Public Service, Labour
and) Social Welfare. What has happened is that we have not really received much
feedback from the families to ascertain the sort of assistance they have
received.
“We had planned for assistance with payment of school fees
for minor children and handouts to assist other elderly dependants with
ordinary expenses.”
Secretary for the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare Mr Simon Masanga did not respond to a request for a comment from
The Sunday Mail.
Mrs Mabhiza said security sector reforms were taking place
through retraining programmes for the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
“In terms of security sector reforms, you can see that
there is a lot of training and retraining in the key security institutions. As
the Justice Ministry we are also sharing with them on what the Constitution
provides.”
The Motlanthe Commission concluded that the death of six
people: Brian Zhuwawo, Challenge Tauro, Jealous Chikandira, Gavin Dean Charles,
Ishmael Kumire and Silvia Maphosa and the injuries sustained by 35 others arose
from the actions of the security services.
The commission also nailed several senior officials from
the MDC Alliance for incendiary rhetoric during the campaigns which resulted in
the street riots. Sunday Mail
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