SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe News
By Lance Guma
A war of words has erupted between government Chief Whip in parliament Joram Gumbo and opposition MP David Coltart over a report by the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) regarding Zimbabwe’s human rights situation. Coltart moved a motion in parliament commending the ACHPR for adopting a resolution on human rights violations in the country but Gumbo insists the motion is not well researched.
On Thursday last week Gumbo told parliament the AU Council of Ministers threw the report back to the commission saying they failed to follow procedures at the summit in Sudan last month. He insists a confidential document was circulated at the summit and was discussed before being rejected by the Ministers. Coltart on the other hand says his motion specifically relates to the resolution passed by the ACHPR in Banjul, the Gambia in December last year and not the AU itself. In an interview with Newsreel on Tuesday Coltart says the government was trying to save face using a technicality.
The motion on the order paper was clearly an embarrassment to them and hence the unprecedented step of trying to remove it. He says in the six years he has been an MP no single motion has ever been removed from the order paper in parliament and this alone served to highlight just how desperate government was in trying to hide their human rights record. Although the AU Ministers have not adopted the report yet, the African Commission tasked with investigating the matter came up with a critical report condemning Zimbabwe human rights record. This according to Coltart is the most important factor to consider.
Up until the resolution, most of the criticism on Zimbabwe’s record has been coming from outside Africa but Coltart says now that the pre-eminent African Human Rights body has criticised the country, government has been badly embarrassed. He says Gumbo has actually raised the profile of the story by complaining about his motion and the publicity generated has helped achieve the objective behind the motion.