Who is Being Served? How Competing Norms and Values Shape the Transitional Justice Agenda in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

Any transitional justice process involves a multiplicity of actors and competing norms and values that shape the transitional justice agenda. This article is concerned with the ways competing norms and values have shaped the transitional justice agenda in Zimbabwe. It makes the argument that the privileging of a neoliberalist perspective, as well as a human rights discourse in dealing with the concerns of post-conflict societies, has posed challenges for meaningful transitional justice interventions in Zimbabwe and on the African continent and suggests a nuanced approach to transitional justice that captures the history, culture and other dynamics that shape a country’s politics. This article draws from interviews with four civil society activists and scholars on transitional justice in Zimbabwe, as well as narratives are drawn from a categorical content analysis of the reports and other publications of four civil society organisations – Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (ZHRNGOF), Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), Amnesty International (Zimbabwe) and Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZIMRIGHTS). The civil society organisations and activists were purposively sampled based on the work they have done in the area under study, as well as their understanding of the context and its nuanced complexities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Gukurahundi is a Shona term that refers to the first rain of summer that washes away the chaff from the previous season (Nyarota 2006). In 2005, Gukurahundi was recognised as a genocide by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, following years of debate by scholars and activist over the classification of the mass violence, as well as the numbers of those killed during the violence (Mpofu 2021).

2 The Dumbutshena Commission of Inquiry was set up to investigate the violence that occurred at Entumbane in Bulawayo and other demobilisation camps across the country following the 1981 clashes between the ex-combatants of ZANLA and ZIPRA (Murambadoro and Matshaka 2019:137).

3 The Chihambakwe Commission of enquiry was established to investigate the Gukurahundi in Midlands and Matabeleland (Killander and Nyathi 2015).

4 The case referred to in this interview is of the murder of Moses Chokuda a member of MDC-Tsvangirai party, by Farai Machaya a ZANU PF member in March 2009. It is a case in point for the successful use traditional mechanisms of transitional justice through the institution of ngozi (an avenging spirit) (Benyera 2015). Ngozi is a restorative justice approach seeking, as the principles cited by Misener (2001), – repentance, responsibility, reconciliation, restitution, and for one to face reality.

5 The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (S. 494) is an act passed by the United States (US) Congress, which imposed economic sanctions on Zimbabwe. The USA has two forms of sanctions against Zimbabwe: The first is imposed by Presidential Executive Orders. The second by the Zimbabwe Economic Recovery and Democracy Act (Kubatana.net 2019a).

6 Resolution 148 of 2002 is a Council Resolution that concluded consultations between Zimbabwe and the EU under Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement focusing on the steps necessary to restore respect for human rights, democratic principles, the rule of law and good governance in Zimbabwe (Kubatana.net 2019a).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University of Pretoria: [Grant Number UP Postgraduate Research Bursary].