The Motlante Report and the missed rationale of national healing In Zimbabwe

From Page 8 must be also weighed on the opposition because it mobilised the 1 August rioters. It is not enough to have the state solely condemned for being irrational in its application of force. Therefore, the compensation burden should be also stomached by the MDC Alliance. One wonders if that recommendation is cognisant of the nexus between the “causeand-consequent” or the “posture and reciprocation” dynamics of conflict management.

Guided by conflict management analytical latitude, the killings of 1 August cannot be wholly condemned in isolation of the MDC Alliance instigated violence. In this case, one thing led to another. Without doubt, the evidence of violence by the MDC is available for all to see. Therefore, there must be clear terms of reference as the recommendations will be effected that the state and the MDC Alliance and Zanu-PF have a shared compensation obligation to those affected by the 1 August disturbance.

However, the Commission must be commended as its role has been clearly transcendent of partisan lines. Its role adds value to what the Government of National Unity failed to achieve through the Ministry of State for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration which was under Mzila Ndlovu and one Sekai Holland of MDC. The two co-heads of this important nation healing ministry left no binding legacy to the mandate that the GNU had entrusted them with.

Over and above, this followed the said ministry’s establishment in the interest of creating a systemic closure to the electoral violence which tainted the image of our country in 2008 right up to the electoral disturbance of 1979. Therefore, the Motlante Commission should be appraised for being an inaugural point of reference to opening a new form of national dialogue. Through the footprint of harmony set by the Commission Zimbabweans must rally around the core values of unity beyond the partisan polarities.