Parties Form Committees To Deal With Violence

The multi-party peace liaison committees are made up of the country,s political groupings including those that form the unity government.
The Zimbabwe Victims of Organized Violence Trust (ZIVOVT) has since late last year been facilitating meetings between the country’s main political parties to form the peace liaison committees.

ZIVOVT coordinator, Bekithemba Nyathi, confirmed that a representative of the CIB Pastor Samuel Ndlovu is chairing the provincial multi-party liaison committees.
In the committee, Zanu (PF) has taken up the post of secretary, MDC T, the post of organising and logistics, Zapu the post of vice chairperson, Zapu (FP) the post of information and advocacy and MDC-Ncube the post of deputy secretary.

“ This is to ensure swift response to actions and intentions of violence, ” the ZIVOVT coordinator said in a telephone interview, adding that “ we hope that the Zimbabwe Republic Police will also become part and parcel of the multi-party peace committees. ”
ZIVOVT was formed last year with a mandate to assist victims of politically motivated violence in Zimbabwe.

Felix Mafa and Edwin Ndlovu, the MDC T and MDC spokespersons respectively both hailed the formation of the peace committees as a major step towards ending political violence in the country.
“ It is a very noble gesture towards ending all acts of political violence, ” Mafa said.Ndlovu added: “ The idea is noble and any sane person would support it to stop political violence. ”
The formation of the multiparty liaison committees follows reports late last year of a raft of changes to the country’s electoral laws, among them, the formation of special police liaison committees to deal with election related violence.
The special police liaison and investigation committees in provincial centers would work with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to deal with intimidation and violence cases during elections.