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Perspective, Stephen Mpofu
The political barbarism that reared its ugly head at a Zanu-PF campaign rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo last Saturday, and widely believed to be an assassination attempt on President Emmerson Mnangagwa who addressed it, is an abomination that must never ever again be countenanced in Zimbabwe’s political arena.
Two people have since died from injuries sustained following the blast that rocked the stadium just as President Mnangagwa was leaving the podium after his address at the end of the rally that was attended by thousands of people.
The President escaped unharmed but 49 people who include Vice President Kembo Mohadi, Zanu-PF national chairperson Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s wife Mrs Mary Chiwenga, Zanu-PF’s National Commissar Lieutenant-General Engelbert Rugeje (Retired) and Zanu-PF Women’s League secretary, Mabel Chinomana were also injured.
President Mnangagwa has blamed the G40 cabal for the dastardly attempt on his life saying the cabal was incensed by his government’s new dispensation which has put the country under the world spotlight politically and economically with investors demonstrating a new burst of enthusiasm to do business in Zimbabwe.
Of course, President Mnangagwa’s re-engagement with the world should be seen by all and sundry as a sad commentary on the G40 cabal members who appeared to treat the country as a personal property to do whatever they wanted to do with it unopposed by anyone.
Obviously what Zimbabweans who clearly love and care for the motherland want to hear is news about the apprehension of the criminals involved in the bomb explosion.
[At almost the same time as the bomb explosion in Bulawayo, there was a grenade attack at a political rally in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, attended by Prime Minister Abij Ahmed, and which claimed two lives.
Authorities there arrested police officers and suspects in connection with the crime.]
That a week has passed without reports of any suspect in the White City bomb explosion being arrested no doubt worries all peace-loving Zimbabweans who must believe that security for political leaders and themselves remain tenuous without the criminals apprehended to face the wrath of the law.
But surely the venue of the rally should have long been guarded before the President and his deputies arrived in Bulawayo for the rally to ensure their security and that of the ruling party’s members.
Was there a lapse in securing the safety of the venue, in which case security personnel have a case to answer for that obvious act of negligence which exposed the Head of State to danger, but thanks to the grace of God who must be impressed with what the new government is doing to bring vitality to the economy and to the lives of a people growing more despondent as jobs vanish in the heat of the illegal Western economic sanctions, in the same way as dew melts away in the heat of the sun?
It is, however, to be hoped that the country’s political leadership and the security gurus are on top of the situation.
But while those involved in the abortive assassination attempt at White City stadium may rejoice at remaining incognito, they must however know that they have no way of escaping God’s knowledge of their act and His commandment which clearly states: “thou shalt not kill.”
Also, those who know the culprits but have chosen not to tell on them must know that they are accomplices in the crime and will in due course also face God’s righteous wrath.
The suspicion that G40 cabal members were responsible for the attempt on the lives of President Mnangagwa and his deputies to try to neutralise the government and stop the forthcoming harmonised elections must make foreign governments where some G40 members are hiding think twice about their country’s security as such fugitives remain a security liability to their own people.
Online Reporter