TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE PEACE IN ZIMBABWE
Gukurahundi hearings: a path to healing?
By mid-July, the government announced that the Gukurahundi Hearings team had reached over 170 Gukurahundi
survivors through its outreach and engagement processes. The process marks an important step forward in Zimbabwe’s
long-overdue journey toward national healing. Led by traditional leaders, the initiative seeks to offer survivors a dignified
platform to recount their experiences and express their needs. Under normal circumstances, such platforms signal a
readiness to initiate important transitional justice processes and contemplations of reparations.
ZPP, in its June report, expressed concern about the manner in which these hearings are being conducted and still
hopes that adjustments will be made to this process to ensure that the principles of inclusivity, fairness, and sincerity are
upheld.
Notwithstanding the mentioned concerns, the growing participation, particularly by women survivors of gender-based
violence, affirms the importance of giving voice to those who endured the worst abuses, and points to a process that, if
executed with integrity, can help mend social fractures and reaffirm the dignity of all victims. However, success must be
measured not merely by numbers, but by transparency, consistency, and visible action. We urge the Government and
Chiefs’ Council to go the extra mile, including outreach to survivors who remain in isolated areas, clear communication
of outcomes, and swift implementation of agreed reparations. If carried out with genuine accountability, these hearings
can set a new standard for national truth‑seeking and peacebuilding in Zimbabwe.
10 STEPS BACKWARDS
Coercion in the Name of Aid: How Forced Contributions Are Deepening Hunger and Violating Rights
Across Zimbabwe’s provinces, a deepening pattern of coerced contributions of maize, fertiliser, or money under the guise
of gratitude for government agricultural inputs is emerging, violating fundamental human rights and worsening food
insecurity for already burdened communities. In almost every province, Mashonaland West, Manicaland, Midlands, and
Mashonaland Central, among others, villagers are being forced to surrender grain or cash to local leaders, traditional
authorities, or party structures, despite receiving these inputs as part of state-sanctioned support. These practices are
neither voluntary nor transparent; they are imposed through intimidation, threats of exclusion from future aid, or denial of
access to government programs, thereby violating citizens’ right to food, property, and non-discrimination.
In Mashonaland West, Padzarandora Village in Zvimba West, villagers were told to surrender 10kg of maize to the Grain
Marketing Board (GMB), regardless of whether they harvested anything during the agricultural season. Village heads did
not question the order, and many households, already food insecure, were coerced into complying. Similarly, in Mutare
North’s Heimat Village, residents were forced to donate grain even if they never received any agricultural inputs in the first
place. These forced contributions are often framed as patriotic gestures or requirements to “thank the government,” but in
reality, they are unofficial, exploitative levies that disproportionately affect the poor.
In Mashonaland Central, residents of Bindura South’s Ward 12 were also made to pay 10kg of maize per household, while in
Gutu South, villagers were coerced into surrendering two gallons of maize under the pretext that the grain would be
stored at the GMB and returned in times of disaster. However, no legal framework or clear accountability mechanism has
been communicated to the beneficiaries, leaving significant room for misappropriation, elite capture, and corruption.
Without clear policies and transparent oversight, these “contributions” risk becoming informal taxation systems that exploit
rural populations and undermine trust in both government and local leadership.
In some cases, coercion extends to monetary contributions. In Guruve North, households were forced to pay USD $1 per
family for a warehouse that turned out to benefit only ruling party affiliates. Similarly, in Mwenezi and Mutasa, villagers
were pressured to pay $1 towards agricultural shows or risk exclusion from future farming inputs. These forced payments,
particularly in cash-strapped rural communities, violate the right to economic freedom and participation in development
without discrimination.
Beyond the legal and ethical violations, the human cost is grave. These exploitative demands strip already food-insecure
households of their minimal harvests, push them deeper into hunger, and erode the social contract between citizens and
duty-bearers. Instead of supporting resilience, such coercive practices undermine livelihoods, intensify poverty, and fuel
mistrust in government initiatives. If left unaddressed, these unclear and coercive practices will not only deepen food
insecurity and inequality, but also corrode the very legitimacy of public service delivery.
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