Last week, Robert Mugabe issued a proclamation which designated the period between Friday and Sunday (today) as days to mark “the dedication of national healing”.
I hope it will not evolve into another holiday on the calendar.
Church groups, traditional leaders and spirit mediums were expected to lead rituals “all in the name of national healing”.
The process was led by the three signatories of the Global Political Agreement, Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
“The colourful ceremony was witnessed by over 300 delegates who included legislators, civic organisations, diplomats, academics, faith-based organisations, among others,” said Zimbabwean journalist Raymond Maingire.
Leaders of various church denominations, traditional leaders and other groups led their followers into observing the national dedication to the national healing process.
There are three ministers responsible for Reconciliation and National Healing, which is under Robert Mugabe’s office.
There is Sekai Holland from Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC; there is Gibson Sibanda from Arthur Mutambara’s MDC and then there is John Nkomo from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF.
These three head the so-called Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration
ZANU-PF, as the chief perpetrator of violence, murder, sleaze, corruption and abductions, is promoting the idea that emphasis must be on forgiveness not justice.
“Wasting people’s time,” wrote a Zimbabwean on a news website. “No healing can be achieved by mere words without action. We can learn important lessons from Rwanda and South Africa, not this nonsense of a talkshow for recycled politicians. Give our people open forums to express their grief and losses and arrest the ZANU militias and security forces.”
Indeed, as preparations for this charade were in swing last week, a 31-year-old MDC activist, Ebba Katiyo, was brutally assaulted by ZANU-PF militias who accused her of supporting the MDC.
She was taken to a Harare hospital semi-conscious and only recovered well enough to talk as politicians were preparing to dedicate this past weekend to national healing.
But while the three leaders were on the podium, “launching” the three days of national healing, the mother of a top MDC official based in Harare was savagely beaten over the head with an iron bar and left for dead in the Midlands mining town of Mvuma.
SWRadio Africa said that the attack on the defenseless Athanancia Mlilo, a 63-year-old nurse, left the small community in Mvuma shell-shocked.
“She had been walking home from work around 8pm when she was set upon from behind by an unknown man.”
Reports say Mrs Mlilo is now receiving treatment at a private hospital in Harare, with her injuries so serious she received 25 stitches to her head.
“The attack has been described as attempted murder and the attacker has been identified by the local community, but the police are too scared to arrest him because of his political connections.”
Mrs Mlilo’s son is top aide to Finance Minister Tendai Biti of Tsvangirai’s MDC.
The hypocrisy of the unity government cannot escape my attention and the MDC is slowly being dragged into a morass of violent political intrigue from which they will be hard pressed to escape.
Mugabe, who claims to have “degrees in violence”, cannot, surely, be in the forefront of reconciliation and of efforts to heal the nation.
The fact that he refuses to disband his militias who continue doing the opposite of what he is preaching and facing no justice is testimony to the dangerous insincerity being manipulated here.
It is a clear indication to Mugabe’s intentions.
Even his speech at the launch of the ceremony was shamelessly void of truth and believability.
“The love that we have for each other, the bond of unity that we seek to establish between and amongst ourselves should create a great oneness amongst us, greater unity,” Mugabe said.
Only last week was he saying “we” must not behave like donkeys. He indirectly meant Tsvangirai who he was accusing of conniving with the British. So much for the love they have for each other.
For Zimbabweans to heed the call of forgiveness and embrace national healing, a lot must change.
Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR), a Zimbabwean civic organization, is horrified by this blatant effort to fool the people, saying that for peace to prevail, in any given nation, the state should be totally transformed into a safe house for every individual.
“Peace, in its totality, is a function of political will and maturity on those who are holding public office and the people of Zimbabwe at large, believing that proper mechanisms of truth and reconciliation have been met,” said ROHR in a widely distributed statement.
“Only after those who were grieved acknowledge that restorative measures have been done and those who would have committed acts to terror acknowledging that they violated other people’s rights could peace as a concept be fully recognized. Mr. Mugabe cannot be the agitator of violence and define peace at the same time, as if he holds the rod of making the rule as he goes.”
Tsvangirai, whose followers, including himself, were brutally assaulted since the formation of the MDC in 1999, said national healing cannot occur without justice and justice must be done.
“These three days of dedication must herald the beginning of a genuine, open and frank process that includes and incorporates the concept of transitional justice, truth and accepting responsibility for the hurt and pain inflicted upon so many Zimbabweans,” he said.“There can be no truth without justice. And no justice without truth.”
But words never moved Mugabe before and Tsvangirai’s pragmatism will, in the end, be his worst enemy, unappreciated and taken advantage of by Mugabe.
Tsvangirai’s failure to contain Mugabe is slowly annoying people now and that’s exactly what Mugabe is counting on. Elections are looming.
Tsvangirai must know and accept that this is bare-knuckle politics not a diplomatic contest where people are bombarded with meaningless rhetoric and applause.
How can anyone be forgiven when they have neither admitted to any wrongdoing nor asked for forgiveness?
Up to this day, from the Matabeleland and Midlands massacres through to the murder, rape and abductions of MDC supporters, Mugabe and his cronies have never admitted to any wrongdoing, let alone ask for forgiveness.
The MDC must remember that it too does not have the authority to forgive Mugabe and ZANU-PF.
The people who were wronged, whose mothers and sisters were raped and starved to death, the people whose husbands and sons were murdered and who were made to disappear and the people who lost their loved ones, property, limbs and spent time in jail on trumped up charges are the ones to forgive but only if and when they learn the truth about what happened.
There has to be some closure and closure is listening to a confession and having painful questions answered.
Forgiveness cannot be demanded, legislated or forced but can only be earned; it is a process.
Yes, Mr Tsvangirai is free to forgive Mugabe for beating him up the way he did; it is within his rights to forgive Mugabe: the offender and the violated, face to face.
But the MDC has no right to forgive the person who killed my kin when I am there and not asking me my opinion.
Apart from regret and repentance, forgiveness is influenced by a hope and belief that the offense will not be repeated.
There cannot be any shortcut to reconciliation and forgiveness.
Only when people know all they need to know can they then try to forgive, but not necessarily forget.
