ZIMBABWEANS are waiting anxiously for President Robert Mugabe’s announcement of the nine-member National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC), including a chairperson, tasked with promoting national healing, peace and reconciliation in the country.
Despite the process being of public interest, parliament has refused to divulge the names of the 16 candidates currently under consideration for final selection by Mugabe. A total of 30 candidates were interviewed three weeks ago to sit on the NPRC.
The NPRC is provided for by Section 251 of the constitution.
Taken from the Zimbabwe Independent
The commission would deal with the country’s most controversial and divisive issues related to gross human rights abuses that occurred in the last 35 years, especially in the run-up to general elections often fraught with violence, intimidation of voters and rigging claims.
It is also expected to deal with the emotive Gurukurahundi massacres of the 1980s in which about 20 000 people died in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions, destruction of property, abductions and murders during elections, farm invasions and disappearances of people perceived to be anti-government.
The Zimbabwe Independent this week profiles the remaining candidates candidates shortlisted for the public interviews:
Gertrude Masimba-Zhuwao
Masimba-Zhuwao (37) is the operations and administration director for Bortwell Investments (Pvt) Ltd which she runs with her husband. Zhuwao was employed by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre as communications and marketing manager. She has worked in various managerial positions for organisations such as Zimbabwe Sun Hotel.
Zhuwao holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) Psychology degree from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). Her husband is nephew to President Robert Mugabe and brother to Zanu PF politburo member Patrick Zhuwao.
Useni Sibanda
Reverend Sibanda is the former director of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance (ZCA, 2005-2013), which is part of the group of churches that has been active in national healing work.
Sibanda has 10 years’ experience as executive director for the ZCA, a network for Christians working on issues of justice and peace. He also has extensive experience working with traditional and community leadership throughout the country.
In 2004, Sibanda worked as Africa projects co-ordinator for Ethics, Peace and Justice Commission for the Association of Evangelicals in Africa, building capacity of national church networks on conflict resolution, peace building and national reconciliation initiatives.
He has been engaged by the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitutional Reform Process as a technical advisor and was part of the team that drafted the national report used to draft the constitution.
Sibanda also has six years professional media experience, having worked for national media houses that include the state daily, the Chronicle, and Zimbabwe Inter-News Agency (Ziana, 1991-1996).
He is currently the lead consultant for Transformative Communications Consultancy, which is a developmental communications and social marketing consultancy firm.
Sibanda is part of the pastoral and eldership team of Praise and Worship Centre International Ministries, which has churches in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
He has a Master of Arts degree in Communication from the University of Leeds/Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (2002).
Simon G Razemba
Razemba is a former spokesperson in the ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises Development and former principal director of the Organ of National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, which was established in 2009 under the Global Political Agreement (GPA), in recognition of the need for national healing.
Victor Ruombwa
Ruombwa is a former director at the Legal Resources Foundation in Bulawayo. He worked there from 2007 to 2014.
He has also worked as a lecturer for Midlands State University from 2006 to 2007 in the Faculty of Law for which he also acted as chairperson. Previously, he worked as a Harare magistrate. Ruombwa is currently lecturer at Great Zimbabwe University.
He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the UZ. Human rights are among his passions.
In October 2014, he was part of 11 aspiring judges interviewed for six vacant High Court Judges’ posts.
Geoffrey Chada
Chada is executive director (finance and administration) with the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (Sirdc), whose mandate is to carry out strategic research and development for the benefit of the manufacturing, service, agricultural and mining sectors of Zimbabwe as well as to commercialise research and development outputs.
Chada is also a Zimbabwe Broadcasting Authority board member and executive chairperson of Domboshawa Theological College. He is a former chief executive of the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust.
Charles Masungure
Masungure is a pastor with the Family of God Church, a motivational speaker, psychotherapist and Christian businessperson. He owns Tyneside Holdings — a holding company with divisions in ICT and construction in Bindura — and also works for Precious Child Orphanage.
The orphanage, based in Bindura, is involved in the adoption and fostering of abandoned and orphaned babies as well as counselling services for orphans, single parents and childless couples.
Masungure has been pastor with the Family of God Church since 2000. He is a deputy chaplain-general with the Shepherd of God’s People.
He worked for the Zimbabwe Republic Police from January 2003 to February 2004 at the Police General Headquarters and his main responsibility was policy design and training for chaplains.
He is a holder of a Master’s degree in Peace Leadership and Conflict Resolution from the Zimbabwe Open University (2014-2015), and a degree in Counselling (2001-2005). Masungure also holds a certificate in Systematic Counselling from the Zimbabwe Institute of Systematic Therapy (1997-1998).
Selo Nare
Nare is former High Court Judge in Bulawayo. He is the Administrative Court judge that upheld a ruling by Justice Majuru that the Daily News should resume publications in 2003. Nare ignored death threats when he made the judgment.
Danisa Khumalo
Khumalo is a Catholic Priest and a director for the Denise Hurley Peace Institute of Southern Africa Bishops Conference based in Bulawayo. The institute is named after South African Catholic Archbishop Denis Eugene Hurley, a critical voice of the church during apartheid.
The institute’s aim is to serve people in conflict situations ensuring that building peace addresses the root causes of conflict and the processes by which peace is achieved respects human rights.
Leslie Ncube
Ncube is son to Matabeleland South provincial affairs minister Abednico Ncube. He is a board member of the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe and was a board member of the now defunct mining firm Gye Nyame Resources.
Gye Nyame Resources was a joint venture between state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and Bill Minerals, represented by Ghanaian businessman William Ato Essien.
Ncube is the current Zanu PF national youth league secretary for economic affairs and before the December congress, he was the national youth league’s secretary for administration. He is a PhD candidate with Wits University in South Africa focussing on service delivery.
He is a holder of Master’s degree in Development Studies and a post-grad in Management Development for Municipal Finance.
Eunice Njovana
Njovana is the country’s director for Search for Common Ground, a project that responds to the need to develop an accessible and inclusive platform for communication for Zimbabwean citizens and to build their capacity to express their opinions and engage with government.
She is highly experienced and skilled in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. She has also been a member of the SafAids regional advisory board — a regional non-profit organisation producing and disseminating HIV information.
Njovana was also head of the United Nations Development Fund for Women in Zimbabwe and is former director of Musasa, a non-governmental organisation which “responds to all forms of trauma experienced by women at the hands of the perpetrators and provides shelter as a temporary place of safety for women who are in crisis”.
Patience Chiradza
Chiradza is former national director with the Joint Monitoring Implementation Committee (Jomic) in the inclusive government (2009-2013).
Jomic was established to ensure the implementation in letter and spirit of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), assess the implementation of the GPA and consider steps which might need to be taken to ensure the speedy and full implementation of the agreement in its entirety. The GPA was precursor to Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity (2009-2013).
Golden Chekenyere
Chekenyere graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US with a PhD in Education in 1984. Chekenyere also holds an MSc degree in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1980; a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education from West Midlands College of Further Education (United Kingdom) and a Bachelors of Arts degree from Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone.
He has varied human resources management experience and international development experience spanning 24 years, including consultancy services.
Chekenyere has worked at USAid in Zimbabwe; in the steelworks industry, manufacturing, banking and the milling industry in various capacities including at executive director level for nine years at National Foods Limited.
At USAid, Chekenyere worked on one of the most elaborate and far-reaching education and training programmes in Zimbabwe. As executive director and group human resources director at National Foods, Chekenyere, beside policy initiation, formulation and implementation, was involved in all aspects of change management.
For four years, has held a non-executive board director position at Agribank, chairing the human resources management sub-committee.
