During the twenty seven years of ZANU PF rule there have been too many incidents of human rights violations.  Zimbabwe’s wounds are to be healed with our country evolving into a united and purposeful nation.

In the 1980’s Gukurahundi claimed more than 20,000 lives in Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces.  Families were displaced and women and children were left widowed and orphaned respectively.  The perpetrators of this man-made disaster were not held accountable but are still at large.

Political violence since 1999 to date has claimed lives whose number is yet to be determined.  People have lost limbs and some have sustained life-threatening injuries rendering them unproductive and therefore unable to look after themselves and their loved ones.  Others have lost property and entire livelihoods to political violence and persecution.

Zimbabweans are in reasonable agreement as to who is responsible for such inhumane acts.  Reconciliation rather than retribution could help Zimbabweans to put the dark chapters of the past twenty-seven years behind them.  Zimbabweans could learn from South Africa where the dark images of the past were reconciled successfully with the rays of hope for the future through a process of rehabilitation rather than isolation.

It is the reasoned positioned of the ZPDP party, however, that for such a process to be successful it will have to be pre-conditioned on the admissions and confessions by those responsible for the crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe.  The Zimbabwean people must be granted the full confession and remorse for such horrific crimes that were perpetrated on innocent people and why they were committed.  Confessors will have to make and undertake to commit themselves never again to carry out such crimes.  They would have to agree to a process of rehabilitation.

A ZPDP government will set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that is independent of the dictates of tribe or the influence of national politics.  This Commission will oversee the comprehensive process of reconciliation and unification.  Under the auspices of the Commission, victims of past crimes will be identified, rehabilitated and guaranteed state assistance as a means of restitution to their prior economic and social status.