Violence: The buck stops with Mugabe

The fact that Zanu PF has unleashed its structures to coerce people not to attend opposition rallies is a clear indication that the 2018 elections will be even more bloody than previous polls.

Source: Violence: The buck stops with Mugabe – NewsDay Zimbabwe  April 30, 2016

Yesterday, we carried a story where Zanu PF officials, including some traditional leaders in some parts of the country in particular Masvingo and Makoni North, were reportedly threatening to track down and kill all suspected MDC-T supporters who will dare attend opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s campaign rallies in the future. This must be condemned by all peace-loving Zimbabweans, Africa and the international community.

NewsDay Comment

This followed Tsvangirai’s rally at Man’a business centre in Gutu last Saturday. Seven homesteads belonging to opposition Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe supporters were also torched in Makoni North on Tuesday.

The fact that Zanu PF has unleashed its structures to coerce people not to attend opposition rallies is a clear indication that the 2018 elections will be even more bloody than previous polls.

These events were not by accident, but calculated to sustain pressure on the electorate and deny them their legitimate right to hold President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to account in the forthcoming polls.

Zimbabweans are growing exasperated with the outbreaks of violence targeted at vulnerable people. These threats of violence are intolerable, and must be stopped. Why Mugabe, who will be 94 years old by the time of the election, wants to coerce the people to vote for him when the majority are already impoverished boggles the mind.

This is not the time for politicking. The majority are staring at starvation, pervasive vice, high unemployment levels and cataclysm in Mugabe’s Zanu PF party over his succession; hence, they need to work hard to feed their families. No doubt Mugabe and Zanu PF’s misplaced priorities have destroyed the country — a jewel at independence in 1980.

If there is anything that the world can do to stop this madness, it is to be truthful about the situation on the ground and put pressure on Mugabe to refrain from violent tendencies.

Violence is a destructive force to Zimbabwe’s marque; it militates against peace-building efforts, the Constitution, democracy and recovery struggles to lure investment to resuscitate the economy.

The President must, therefore, stop perpetrators of violence because if left unchecked, they will continue to haunt communities and cause chaos in the countryside.

Zimbabwe is supposed to be a constitutional democracy. Therefore, Zanu PF, like any other political party, must fairly compete for power on the basis of delivering on their promises.

We have seen what political violence can do to a country. A repeat of Gukurahundi like what happened in the 1980s or the 2008 presidential runoff election violence is not something to be cherished by any peace-loving people, let alone political parties that claim to represent the majority.

Citizens have not benefited from these episodes save for the deep scars inflicted upon them. That should have been a learning curve that the country needs to develop and not regress when we have one of the most-sought-after human resources in the world.

We had thought that the Zanu PF youths could have learnt something, but we were wrong after all. True, it could be that Mugabe always benefits from the violence.

It is regrettable that we have incidents of violence and destruction of property in communities around the country almost two years before the next elections. So, it is important for the international community to lay out the ground rules to protect the people and stop Zanu PF in case the violence becomes uncontrollable.

The Zanu PF leadership should know that human rights are not gifts bestowed on the people at the pleasure of government, no, they are universal and should apply to all.

We urge the police to guarantee the security of political violence victims regardless of political affiliation. They should also arrest all those who commit crimes in the name of political patronage.