Justice In Zimbabwe Research Articles

Narratives as a gateway to transitional justice

In many ways transitional justice is a battle of narratives. Both at the conception and implementation stages, it is contested in part by different meanings of what justice is, how harm is understood, and who the victim and perpetrator are. All these determine the trajectory the processes will take. How we reach deeper understanding about these battles and their implications is a result of our choice of research methodology. In this article, I reflect on the use of narrative as a philosophy of understanding the world, as a data source, a lens, and a method of investigation in relation to understanding the trajectory of transitional justice in Zimbabwe between 2000-2013. While the findings of the research have been presented in other outputs, this article gives insight into the research methodology. It argues that using narratives of violence as a gateway to transitional justice research is key to understanding the nuances that determine the trajectories transitional justice processes may take in any context.

Worker rights and social justice in Zimbabwe’s mining sector

This paper is an overview of workers’ rights in Zimbabwe focusing on the abuse, exploitation of workers and the brutal attitudes displayed toward mine workers and trade unions officials by mining companies and government authorities. Zimbabwe’s mining sector plays a major role in Zimbabwe’s export economy. However, Zimbabwe’s mining sector, like many other mining sectors in the developing world, has workers’ right issues. Considerable attention has been given to the labour legislation by the government of Zimbabwe but there are still serious violations of workers’ rights in Zimbabwe. Mining firms involved in extracting the mineral wealth of the country are benefiting at the expense of workers. They are operating with little regard for the well-being of its employees. In light of this, the present study highlights and synthesizes workers’ rights issues in the Zimbabwe mining sector. The study also offers practical recommendations that could address the problems that mining workers are currently facing in Zimbabwe

Restorative justice in Zimbabwe’s reconciliation process: Some considerations.

Restorative justice in Zimbabwe’s reconciliation process: Some considerations.

Slow repair: gender and restorative justice in Zimbabwe

This article reports on a ceremony gone awry at Kufunda Village, Zimbabwe, in which women had refused to follow a gendered cultural script of forgiveness and had instead released rather than slaughtered a chicken. They thus reinscribed old symbols with new meanings as a means of contesting patriarchy and beginning a slow process of restorative justice. Kufunda Village was set up as a direct response to conditions of postcolonial modernity in Zimbabwe: the village’s inhabitants see themselves as engaged in a process of learning new ways of inhabiting Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the socioeconomic collapse of the post-2000 era. This paper presents a detailed ethnographic examination of this locally generated example of an invented- tradition-in-process to argue that the refusal of “quick” forgiveness allowed for the development of a slower, more processual form of restorative justice that was seen as being more likely to succeed. I contrast this form of slow change to larger-scale internationally generated models of transitional justice that have been rolled out in the country. I argue that any attempts at restorative justice in Zimbabwe need to recognise justice as a slow, processual and uneven process that needs to incorporate multiple hidden and overt harms.

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.

From ‘Defending Sovereignty’ to ‘Fighting Corruption’: The Political Place of Law in Zimbabwe After November 2017

In this article, I examine the shifting language of debates over law and justice in Zimbabwe in the run-up to, and following, the November 2017 coup. I argue that the rhetoric Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) drew upon to secure its authority and negotiate legitimacy through law, shifted from a focus of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘protection’, to one of battling ‘corruption’ and ‘criminality’. At the same time, there remained a consistency in the manner that the legal system was used to target a select part of the country’s population, those opposed to ZANU–PF and its vision for the future.

A critical analysis of the prospects of transitional justice in post-Mugabe era

Zimbabwe is a country that has been under authoritarian regime for almost 4 decades. These are the decades in which the former and late President Robert Gabriel Mugabe was leading the government. At more than one time, his government adopted violent tactics to consolidate their leadership positions. Historically, the former resulted in killings (approximately 20 000) people of the Midlands and those in the Matabeleland. This did not end there, as Mugabe’s regime continued to engineer violence during elections to remain in power especially in the period of the post-2000. All these events have given rise to the calls of transitional justice in Zimbabwe. There is a challenge in establishing transitional justice in non-liberal context. This study explored the prospects of transitional justice in Zimbabwe in the post Mugabe’s authoritarian regime change. The study reveals that there is no closure for the wounds suffered in the past. The victims of violence during Gukurahundi have not been properly buried or revealed yet the perpetrators have enjoyed a blanket of amnesty as the government employed the transitional justice mechanism that favour the perpetrators. Another revelation remains that, under the current regime, only traditional mechanisms are effective although done at a small scale of community level. A multi stakeholder transitional justice process that include major actors such as traditional leaders and civil societies has been recommended in the study.

Occupying the Blind Spot: the role of Kuripa ngozi in Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe the case of Hwesa Clan

Occupying the Blind Spot: the role of Kuripa ngozi in Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe the case of Hwesa Clan

Military-assisted transition, constitutional order in Africa and transitional justice in Zimbabwe : towards effective change management

Military-assisted transition, constitutional order in Africa and transitional justice in Zimbabwe : towards effective change management

An overview of the state of electoral justice in Zimbabwe

An overview of the state of electoral justice in Zimbabwe

Changing voting patterns, exertions on electoral legitimacy : towards transformative justice in Zimbabwe

Changing voting patterns, exertions on electoral legitimacy : towards transformative justice in Zimbabwe

Strengthening Locus Standi in Human Rights Litigation in Zimbabwe: An analysis of the Provisions in the New Zimbabwean Constitution

Zimbabweans have been both victims of and witnesses to serious human rights violations over the years.Though there is wide agreement and speculation that the state and its agencies are the perpetrators of these atrocities, they have largely remained unprosecuted and unpunished.Such impunity is inter alia the result of ineffective law enforcement mechanismsand institutions as well as the lack of capacity and legal knowledge of victims to approach the courts and seek redress. These factors negatively affected the protection of human rights and access to justice in Zimbabwe.
 Although the Lancaster House Constitution contained a Declaration of Rights, its enforcement mechanisms, particularly those relating to locus standi (legal standing), posed a great challenge to human rights litigation in Zimbabwe. This is so because the Lancaster House Constitution adopted the traditional common law approach to standing. Under this approach it was required that an individual must have a "personal, direct or substantial interest" in a matter in order to have standing. The Lancaster House Constitution failed to recognise the importance of broader rules of standing, which would accommodate public interest litigation, specifically for the purpose of protecting human rights. Contrary to this, the new Constitution of Zimbabwe (2013) broadens the rules of standing in order to enhance access to the courts. This paper analyses the new approach to standing under the new constitutional dispensation in Zimbabwe.
 To this end, the discussion commences with an elucidation of the concept of locus standi and its link to access to justice. This is followed by an analysis of locus standi under the Lancaster House Constitution. Since the new approach in Zimbabwe is greatly informed by the South African approach to locus standi, a brief analysis of standing in South Africa is made. The paper concludes with a discussion of the approach to locus standi under the new constitution with a view to demonstrating how the new approach is likely to impact on the right of access to justice and human rights protection.
 

RECONCILIATION WITHOUT JUSTICE? AN ANALYSIS OF THE FILM, RECONCILIATION IN ZIMBABWE, THE FIRST TEN YEARS

The aim of this article is to explore the idea of reconciliation and justice in the documentary film, Reconciliation in Zimbabwe, the first ten years (1990). This film is one of the very first and few films to deal with the themes of reconciliation and justice from the perspective of the moving image. At the centre of the film narrative is how different political constituents in Zimbabwe between 1980 and 1990 think about the question of reconciliation and the possibility of ultimate justice. Coming immediately after the war, the film debates the varied and diverse expectations of Zimbabwean whites and blacks, and the role of memory in relationship to the new politics of tolerance proposed by the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The article argues that the significance of the film lies in the desire to balance hotly contested perspectives on what constitutes reconciliation and justice in Zimbabwe.

Bringing in the grassroots: transitional justice in Zimbabwe

Since 2008, the Government of Zimbabwe, the international community and non-governmental organisations have all advocated the need for transitional justice in Zimbabwe. Yet, few initiatives have emerged. This article suggests that local communities could be enabled to help fill this policy vacuum. The results of a pilot research project are presented, where 1,400 victims of violence were engaged. The data collected highlights a clear demand for justice at the grassroots, but an educational input is necessary and transitional justice capacity needs to be built. Currently unstructured and unorganised opinions on how to cope with past violence need to be translated into practical programmes of action. The article asserts that such leadership, stimulated from the grassroots, represents a potential strategy capable of challenging the existing policy vacuum. Even if this challenge is initially rebuffed, it is contended that such an input still remains vital for the longer term. An opportunity currently exists to deepen an understanding of transitional justice in Zimbabwe which will enable community groups to initiate and respond to Zimbabwe's transitional justice processes when the national political environment becomes more receptive to this need.

Violence, partisanship and transitional justice in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACTWhat determines people's willingness to consider punishment for human rights abusers? This article investigates this question in the context of Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the country's violent presidential election campaign of June 2008. Based on a national probability sample survey, the paper shows that exposure to violence was reportedly widespread and that attitudes to transitional justice are mixed. In considering how to handle abuses, Zimbabweans weigh the pros and cons carefully and, recognising that peace and justice are difficult to obtain simultaneously, generally prefer the former. The article analyses the various factors that together predict a citizen's proclivity to claim transitional justice in its most demanding retributive form. Reflecting power relations, the results indicate that political partisanship is almost as important as individuals’ personal experience of actual and threatened acts of violence.

What transitional justice in Zimbabwe? Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) prepares for popular participation

Mary Ndlovu is a social justice and human rights activist with a backgroundin education. Originally from Canada, she married a Zimbabwean nationalistin exile in Zambia and since returning with him to Bulawayo in 1980 has livedthere, working in teacher education and the legal and human rights NGO sector.