ZIMBABWEANS are a traumatised lot, angry and are hurting after “going through a lot over the years” and need healing, National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) chairperson Bishop Emeritus Ambrose Moyo has said.
BY NQOBANI NDLOVU
Moyo, who was recently appointed NPRC chairperson by President Robert Mugabe, said national healing was necessary to heal the wounds of traumatised Zimbabweans.
He said peace would remain elusive if “we do not deal with the trauma” facing many.
“We are dealing with a nation that has been so traumatised, from the ordinary man in the village right to the top officials in government. People have gone through a lot over the years and they have not forgotten because you cannot just forget without healing,” Moyo said during a conflict prevention, management, resolution and transformation reporting workshop held in Harare.
Moyo did not cite examples of the trauma Zimbabweans experienced, preferring to say peace-building outreach programmes carried out by the Ecumenical Church Leaders Forum (ECLF) had shown that “we are dealing with an angry nation”.
The NPRC chairperson is also the executive director of the ECLF. The NPRC was set up to ensure post-conflict justice, healing and reconciliation.
Thousands of Zimbabweans have been killed, injured or displaced since independence, mostly as a result of political violence.
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According to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, over 20 000 civilians were killed during the 1980s Gukurahundi massacres in Midlands and Matabeleland regions.
Elections have also been accompanied by political violence, leading to death, displacement and injuring of political opponents. MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai had to boycott the 2008 presidential run-off protesting widespread violence and intimidation of his supporters.
The 2005 Operation Murambatsvina is also another episode that left hundreds of thousands homeless after government embarked on a what it called a clean-up programme to destroy houses, cottages and vending stalls it deemed illegal, or unfit for human habitation.
“We have not dealt with the trauma that people have lived with. If you cannot deal with trauma, you cannot have peace. In order to achieve peace, we need to go head-on and deal with the trauma that people have gone through,” Moyo said.
