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Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
THE proposed National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation Commission, which is expected to promote national healing, unity and the peaceful resolution of conflicts in the country will have a 10-year lifespan.

In his opening remarks at the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission Bill public hearing in Bulawayo yesterday, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, Senator Damian Mumvuri said the purpose of the Bill is to come up with an enabling Act that will operationalise the Commission.

“The purpose of the Bill is to legislate an enabling Act that will operationalise the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission that will have a working period of 10 years. The commission, when established, will among others develop and implement programmes to promote national healing, unity and cohesion and the peaceful resolution of conflicts and disputes,” said Senator Mumvuri.

The public hearings are being spearheaded by a joint team comprising the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, the Senate’s Thematic Committee on Human Rights and the Thematic Committee on Peace and Security.

Senator Mumvuri said the public hearings were being held in all the country’s provinces to invite comments and suggestions from members of the public on the Bill.

Bulawayo residents who participated at yesterday’s public hearing said the Bill was not different from the original one as it did not capture their concerns.

Ms Patricia Tshabalala, a Mpopoma resident said: “We were promised that the national healing process would be done according to our requests. It’s disheartening to note that the Bill is not different from the one we rejected.

“We want the perpetrators of the disturbances that occurred in the 1980s to admit so that we can move on. We will not progress if we don’t tell the truth. People were killed, women and children were raped and this has affected families since then.”

A Bulawayo youth, Mr Takunda Madzana said it was important for members of the public to be educated on why the nation needed healing and reconciliation.

“We can’t have a healing process when we don’t know what happened. As young people, we don’t know what happened and we want to know why this healing process is important for us,” he said.

Other participants reiterated the importance of a smooth healing process, saying the young generation must not inherit hatred.

@pamelashumba1