Editorial Comment: Support political leaders’ efforts to end violence

already arrested six suspects who will soon appear in court.
The principals to the Global Political Agreement have publicly stated that they will not tolerate political violence.
In his Independence Day speech President Mugabe spoke strongly against violence and called for open political contestation. He said if he could be contested for the presidency then no one else should stop others from aspiring to certain political offices.

His speech resonated well with the majority of Zimbabweans and gave impetus to the battle to eradicate political violence.
But to expect that we could have zero violence overnight is to expect too much. As long as the incidents of violence are isolated they should be easy to deal with.
This is not to justify or downplay Mr Magura’s killing. One life lost is one too many. The Mudzi incident should not have occurred and the local political leadership should get to the bottom of the matter quickly.
Yes the police are doing their investigations but the political parties should also be dealing with the matter and giving police their full support. They should be seeking to understand what gave rise to the violence and learning lessons on how they can prevent a recurrence.

We are confident that enough awareness has been created among the leaders on the need to be speaking against violence at every political meeting until it cascades to the grassroots. We need to sustain that view that all parties to the Global Political Agreement abhor violence and are working to end it.
What we do not want to see are politicians taking advantage of the tragedy that has befallen the Magura family to score political points against each other and undermine processes underway to prepare for elections later this year.

We find the statement issued by the US embassy to be a mischievous attempt to promote their view that violence in Zimbabwe is perpetrated by Zanu-PF alone.
Evidence on the ground shows that political violence is endemic in all the political parties and its resolution will only come from all the political players agreeing to work collectively to put an end to this unfortunate aberration in our political system.

An attempt to score political points gives rise to the view expressed by Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo that the killing could have been meant for the Sadc extraordinary summit underway in Angola. “The whole exercise is also meant to damage the image of Zanu-PF with the MDC provoking the situation to attract attention,” alleged Cde Rugare Gumbo.

We hope this is not the case. We would want to believe that it was not planned and that next time there is a Sadc, AU or EU meeting we will not see a sudden upsurge in violence or incidents that seek to paint a grim picture of our forthcoming elections.
We are aware that Zimbabwe’s Western detractors are looking for every excuse to condemn Zimbabwe and find a pretext for military intervention which will give them access to our minerals and agricultural land.

But if Zimbabweans close ranks and continue to work for peace, the Western vultures will be successfully kept out.
We have held elections before that were free of violence and we can do it again.
What the recent incident teaches Zanu-PF and other political parties is that they have to be alert all the time. The parties have to find ways of bringing to all their structures the message of non-violent political contestation that the President has issued.

It is really not about who should be perceived as being more violent than the other. It is about eliminating violence from our political landscape and not playing to the international gallery.
It appears other parties can get involved in violence and get away with it in the eyes of the so-called international community.

But if it is an incident involving anyone remotely linked to Zanu-PF it will be accentuated to imply that it is done with the covert support of the party’s leadership; hence the use of terms like “State-sponsored violence”.
It is now incumbent upon the structures of the State such as the police and the courts to give the political leadership the support it needs in dealing with violence.

The President has spoken clearly that violence is a thing of the past and that message must continue to be spread far and wide.