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REPORTS that MDC-T secretary general Tendai Biti’s home was petrol-bombed early this week made sad reading indeed.
We hold no brief for the former Finance Minister beyond the fact that he is a human being and a fellow Zimbabwean who should enjoy the same rights and security we all desire.
So far, the police have said they are investigating the bombing outside Biti’s Umwinsdale home in Harare.
No suspects had been arrested at the time of going to print.
Biti himself gave conflicting reports, claiming in some that he knew where the attack came from but did not want to prejudice police investigations, and then in others saying he had no idea who carried out the midnight attack.
The important thing though is that he did report the attack to the police, a departure from some self-important members of the MDC-T who claim they don’t report violence to the ZRP because it is allegedly biased in favour of Zanu-PF.
We are, however, disturbed by reports in some sections of the media which quote MDC-T spokesman Douglas Mwonzora making wild claims that the attack on Biti’s home bore the hallmarks of Zanu-PF’s work.
This is bizarre in the extreme, not only because of its childishness but also because Zanu-PF has nothing to gain by attacking Biti when he is already under attack from his own party, not to mention the fact that Mwonzora is a lawyer and knows that he risks prejudicing police investigations.
If Mwonzora has any useful information on who perpetrated the attack, he should surrender such information to the police. He should stop making political capital for his dying party.
The time for victimhood politics and sympathy votes passed with the July 31, 2013, elections where his party was clobbered beyond recovery. Instead of doing some introspection to find out where they got it wrong, they are busy fighting each other and trying to silence those senior members who point out that the shocking defeat might indicate that the fish’s head is rotten.
The violence in the MDC-T, much of it carried out in broad daylight at the party’s Harvest House headquarters, is more than enough testimony that it has no clue about democracy and democratic discourse. They are merely mouthing slogans purloined from the lips of their sponsors as a ruse to mask their thuggery.
Nobody with half a brain will believe Mwonzora’s diversionary claims that Zanu-PF wants to further divide a fractured party. And what does he do when investigations reveal an inside job? Is he going to repeat the usual silly claims that the police are trying to protect Zanu-PF? What benefit do these cheap, slimy political utterances bring to the party?
The truth, for Mwonzora needs to hear it even against his will, is that cheap political statements elicit contempt. They show that he does not respect Zimbabweans to make judgments for themselves; that he must think for them and tell the police even, how to do their work.
We certainly do not expect this from a lawyer, even if that lawyer is speaking in the capacity of a party spokesperson. There is still something called decency and self-respect.
Meanwhile, we hope the police will be able to apprehend and bring to book those who take advantage of the cover of night to carry out cowardly attacks on people’s family homes. Zimbabweans are tired of political violence.
In fact the government’s Zim Asset blueprint bids us put our heads together in an effort to rebuild a new economy from the rubble of the racist, colonial economy which survived uninterrupted for 20 years into Zimbabwe’s independence. The MDC-T and all other opposition parties have a role to play in this national cause; there is no need to kill each other just because they did not make it to State House, a fact foretold a long time before the deed was done.
Online Reporter