NPRC bemoans limited resources
THE National Peace and Reconciliation Commission is operating without vehicles, and commissioners have to use their personal cars as Treasury is yet to allocate the commission adequate resources, legislators have heard.
NPRC Commissioner Professor Choice Ndoro said the commission had no vehicles and was only providing commissioners with fuel to use in their vehicles in the discharge of their constitutional duties.
Prof Ndoro said this while addressing legislators during an engagement meeting where the constitutional body was outlining its five-year strategic plan to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Senate’s Thematic Committee on Human Rights.
“We had submitted a bid of $4,27 million in the 2019 National Budget but we were allocated $1,7 million, which is about 40 percent of our total requirements,” said Prof Ndoro.
Prof Ndoro said the commission was allocated $40 000 towards the purchase of vehicles, a figure she said was a drop in the ocean.
She said they had been using their own vehicles since 2016, at times driving to places as far as Chiredzi, more than 200 kilometres away from Harare, without any guarantee that they would be compensated by the Commission should they have any breakdown.
In his presentation, NPRC chairperson Retired High Court judge Justice Selo Nare said their engagement was meant to ensure that there was a shared understanding of the work of the commission.
“With this understanding we are hopeful that Parliament will be the key advocate for financial and institutional support for the commission. The NPRC also encourages Members of Parliament to facilitate the access of the commission in their respective constituencies and partner with the commission to resolve conflicts, promote peace and build social cohesion,” said Justice Nare.
Turning to their five-year strategic plan, Justice Nare outlined four strategic areas.
They are to initiate inclusive healing, facilitate healing enhancement of policy frameworks and capacities, strengthen the peace architecture as a catalyst for conflict prevention and transformation, and to enhance the national capacity to peace and reconciliation.
“The strategic plan provides the vehicle through which the NPRC will deliver its mandate. It is a framework for prioritising its responses to the peace and reconciliation needs identified by Zimbabweans through stakeholder engagement processes, targeted focus group discussion, literature review on Zimbabwe and provincial consultations and modelling around its constitutional mandate,” said Justice Nare.
“This plan is collective wisdom of the people of Zimbabwe and provides for unifying the nation towards sustainable peace by resolving violent conflicts of the past and preventing their recurrence in the future.”
He said the work of NPRC will be guided by five shared values of confidentiality, inclusivity, ubuntu, victim-centeredness and transparency.
“These core values put Zimbabwean people firmly at the centre of the commission’s work with particular focus on respect for victims, marginalised groups, including women, girls and people living with HIV/AIDS and disabilities,” he said.