Masvingo residents on Friday stampeded to get a copy of the new constitution, saying they were yet to get hold of the supreme law of the land almost two years after it was adopted.
By Tatenda Chitagu
The new constitution was crafted during the era of the inclusive government.
About 200 copies of the new charter that were placed at the information kiosk put up by the Human Rights NGO forum during an outreach program on Friday were snatched up in just 30 minutes. Transitional Justice researcher at Human Rights NGO forum, Dzikamai Bere said the stampede showed that Zimbabweans were starved of the new constitution.
“All the 200 copies which we expected to give out the whole day have been finished in just 30 minutes as residents pushed and shoved to get a copy.
“They had never set sight on the document,” Bere said.
Speaking at the outreach programme, Masvingo residents said the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) should be constituted as a matter of urgency so that it looks into cases of political violence.
“We are tired of political violence cases every time there is an election.
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“We feel the NPRC should probe cases where we lost our livestock during terror bases or had relatives who were tortured or killed,” Marcia Gumbo, a local resident said.
Masvingo was a flashpoint of political violence in the run up to the 2008 harmonised elections as well as the presidential election re-run that later followed after there was no clear winner.
Perhaps the most chilling case was that of the petrol-bombing of MDC-T activists at Jerera growth point where three people died while two other survivors were left nursing life-threatening injuries.
Another resident also called for a probe into the Tokwe Murkosi dam flooding disaster amid reports that it was “a man-made disaster”.
