Editorial Comment: Heed President’s anti-violence call

uplifting the motherland.
People must learn to be tolerant of divergent views as we count down to a referendum to choose a new constitution and subsequently elections later this year.
In his address during Heroes Day main celebrations at the National Heroes Acre in Harare yesterday, the President challenged Zimbabweans to be united.
“Zvibhakera hatichada. Garisanai. Hapana anofanira kushaiswa mufaro nekuti ndeweparty iyi.
“Kana uine shoko rekumudzora taura naye auye kwako. (We do not want violence. People should live together peacefully regardless of political affiliation).
“Tingave nekusiyana pakati pedu.
“Tichienda kumachechi akasiyana, tiine mitupo yakasiyana, yakawanda asi tova nekunzwanana nekuti pama party edu takasiyana.
“Kana usingade party yacho zvinosangana pakuvhota worega kuivhotera pamaelections (We might be different, go to different churches, have different totems but we must tolerate each other because our parties are different.
“If you do not want the other party, do not vote for it during elections).”
This powerful message must therefore resonate within political parties and permeate down to lowest rungs of our society.
We challenge political leaders to take this message of peace home to their supporters.
The President, together with the leaders of the MDC factions, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and Professor Welshman Ncube, have on numerous occasions called for an end to political violence.
Last year, the three leaders addressed a meeting that brought together members of the Zanu-PF Politburo and the MDCs’ national executive councils in Harare and the message was again very clear: no to political violence.
We therefore wonder why violence continues to rear its ugly head in our country.
We wonder where those behind it are getting their instructions.
Perhaps it is high time police descended heavily on those caught on the wrong side of the law.
Soon political parties will start campaigning for or against the draft Constitution that is currently being finalised by the Constitutional Parliamentary Select Committee (Copac), after which the country is expected to go for elections.
We do not want this process to be tainted by violence and we urge the political parties to continue preaching the gospel of peace to their supporters.
Their leaders have taken the lead in denouncing violence and there should not be pockets of violence in any part of the country.
Party supporters must take a leaf from the unity shown by the party leaders who sat side by side at the National Heroes Acre and at various centres throughout the country to commemorate Heroes Day.
The same leaders from the three main political parties that formed the Inclusive Government sit side by side in Cabinet, mingle in Parliament and exchange notes on various issues at various fora.
As President Mugabe rightly pointed out, we are all Zimbabweans and differences in opinion should not result in an exchange of blows.
There is certainly no reason to beat up someone because they share a different view or belong to a different political party.
In fact, a party whose supporters beat up people will not get votes from the same people.
As we move towards the referendum and the elections, political parties should try to outwit each other through selling their ideas and programmes to the people.
We have in the past pointed out that violence does not help any party to win votes and that those who live by the sword always die by the sword and he who breeds violence begets violence.
Violence itself, in whatever form, is not the best way forward and one can never use violence to advance one’s political agenda.
We do not believe violence is the solution. In any election, there are two possible outcomes — a win or a loss.
The losers must therefore not resort to violence, but must accept defeat, look back and see where they went wrong and hope for the best next time.
It is high time our politics was taken to the next level, where supporters of the victor and loser would be able to sit down and share ideas, not exchange blows.
We want to once again support President Mugabe’s call for peaceful co-existence because peace is an inevitable prerequisite for sustainable development in our country.