Initial Thoughts on the Matabeleland Constitutional Outreach Experience

People in rural Matabeleland pray before a COPAC meeting

By Shari Eppel – Solidarity Peace Trust I have on my desk, a silver, two-shilling, 1947, Southern Rhodesia King George VI coin, and two big copper pennies with holes in the middle, one from 1949 (Southern Rhodesia) and one from 1956 (Rhodesia and Nyasaland). These are prized souvenirs of my time in a COPAC outreach […]

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Mon, November 1 2010 » Constitution, Zimbabwe Review » 5 Comments

An overview of the circumstances of the Unity Accord of 1987 in comparison to those of the Global Political Agreement of 2008

In Zimbabwe in 2008, the March Presidential election failed to produce an outright winner, although Morgan Tsvangirai won 47% of the vote to Robert Mugabe’s 43%. The ensuing state orchestrated violence reduced the June run off to an illegitimate one-man race, as Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew, citing impossible conditions for his supporters. Since then, there has […]

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Sun, February 15 2009 » Essays, Global Political Agreement, History » No Comments

“A Tale of Three Dinner Plates” – forensic, narrative and psychological truths and the challenges facing human rights researchers in Zimbabwe

Human rights reporting in Zimbabwe has been extensive in the last few years, and civics have played a monumental role in keeping Zimbabwe in the public eye – but human rights reports have a very specific mandate and a very moral intent. It is their task to keep track of what could be called “forensic […]

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Fri, February 15 2008 » Conflict resolution, Essays, Transitional justice » No Comments

“Healing the dead”: exhumation and reburial as a tool to truth telling and reclaiming the past in rural Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a nation whose last one hundred years of official history and policy stand as an example of how to ensure that truth and peace do not prevail. During the last three decades in particular, there has never been a period of sustained peace or genuine reconciliation to the past. We are a nation […]

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Wed, September 13 2006 » Conflict resolution, Essays, History, Transitional justice » No Comments

Operation Taguta / Sisuthi: Command Agriculture in Zimbabwe; its impact on rural communities in Matabeleland

Report Cover Photo: Soldiers driving a tractor

Command agriculture has to be contextualised against a background of the collapse of agriculture since 2000, and of epidemic corruption and inefficiency not only in this sector, but throughout the government policies in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has faced a food deficit for several consecutive years, and the need to regain credibility for the land invasions, as […]

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Sat, April 15 2006 » Access to resources, Command agriculture, Human rights, Reports » No Comments