ZANU PF eager to block parliamentary probe into violence

By Lance Guma
17 October 2008

A call by the MDC for parliament to investigate this year’s political violence has touched a raw nerve in the ZANU PF system. On Wednesday MDC Mutare Central legislator Innocent Gonese tabled a motion for a parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the violence which rocked the country after the March 29 elections, that were won by the MDC. Harare East MP Tendai Biti also tabled another motion asking parliament to investigate the ‘militarization and politicization of food distribution.’ ZANU PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo however sought to have the two motions removed from the order paper claiming, ‘they were not in the spirit of the agreement signed by the three political parties.’

Speaking to the state owned Herald newspaper on Thursday Gumbo said he had already spoken to MP Gonese from the MDC and advised him of their position. ‘We feel that the motions do not serve to sustain the current political dispensation of working together. It does not bring any healing which is the essence of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the three principals but would open old wounds, that might even create vengeance in rural areas and those areas that experienced political violence.’ Gumbo also claimed the Business Committee of parliament ‘did not sit and currently is not sitting until a new Cabinet has been put in place.’ This he argued meant proper procedures were not followed in tabling the motions.

Newsreel spoke to MDC Chief Whip Innocent Gonese who said it was not the business of the House Committee to decide which motions would go on the Order Paper. The House Committee is tasked with looking at issues such as parliament’s calendar, it’s sittings and other day to day affairs. He said any MP can table a motion in parliament as long as they give the Speaker advance notice. Asked whether they had the numbers to push the motion through if ZANU PF resisted, Gonese said, ‘we prefer not to go down that route.’ He said he hoped ZANU PF would support the investigation since they were going to be working in the same government. He also said reconciliation could only come if people owned up to their crimes.

At the heart of the matter is a desire by ZANU PF to keep a lid on a brutal campaign of terror which led to the murder of over 130 MDC activists while tens of thousands of supporters were brutalized and displaced. The notorious Joint Operations Command deployed over 200 senior army officers countrywide who coordinated the campaign. Lobengula MDC MP Sam Sipepa Nkomo on Tuesday told parliament there could be no national healing, as argued by ZANU PF, if there was no full disclosure of what happened. ‘For there to be any meaningful national healing, there is need for all the crimes of political violence to be investigated and all the perpetrators brought to book,’ he said.