Political violence mars Zim’s image

leaders of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in Harare on 10 November.
That was undoubtedly a historic event in view of the fact that Zimbabwe’s political landscape has been characterised by violence since attainment of independence in April 1980 up to this year.
The pre-independence general elections were violent in word and deed, and so were subsequent ones, resulting in the maiming, death of people and the destruction of property worth thousands of millions of dollars.
It would be a futile exercise to apportion blame for the cause or causes of the anguish and misery experienced by the people of Zimbabwe at that time. Suffice it to state that the anguish was dire and the misery indescribable.
There was also the 2008 election violence that occurred in some areas of Zimbabwe, such as Mutoko and Murewa, more than in others. Since then, the nation has had political violence incidents in parts of Harare and in Chitungwiza. It was virtually because of three latest clashes between Zanu-PF and MDC-T members that the GPA principal leaders met in November.
It was very mature that the three national leaders, Cde Mugabe representing Zanu-PF, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC-T and Prof Welshman Ncube of the MDC put their heads together and called for an end to the intolerable violence.
It is important to understand that political violence is a form of bullying, no more and no less. It is practised by political leaders who have nothing to offer voters except themselves either as individuals or as a group.
Such political leaders are violently self-centred and not selflessly public-spirited. Their mentality is only slightly different from that of rapists.
They have no convincing policy to offer to win the support of the electorate, so they bully people to make them support them as individuals or as a group without an attractive policy.
They employ and pay hoodlums to do their ungodly bidding without question. Without those thugs, the self-seeking politicians would be toothless.
The ruffians used by the unscrupulous politicians are by and large mercenaries most of whom are loyal to individual, self-centred politicians rather than to a party’s ideology or policy.
The birth of an independent Zimbabwe was brought by freedom-fighters. We struggled primarily for the adult people of Zimbabwe to be free to choose or elect their own representatives.
We fought so that the people can associate freely at various social, cultural, political and economic level or forum. That is called freedom of association.
We waged an armed struggle so that the people of Zimbabwe can move and live wherever they please without let or hindrance. That is known as freedom of movement.
We sacrificed our very lives so that the people of Zimbabwe could express their views, sentiments and wishes without fear of persecution or prosecution. That is freedom of speech.
We fought so that we can believe or not believe in whatever deity or idol. That is freedom of conscience.
These are fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe. We are all entitled to them irrespective of our tribal, racial origin or our social, cultural, religious standing or persuasion.
What does all this mean? It means that no-one has the right to question or diminish our right to associate with whomever we please politically, culturally, socially or in whatever way we wish.
If any of these basic freedoms is violated, we have a constitutional right to appeal to the law enforcement authorities of the country for them (freedoms) to be protected and promoted.
The law enforcement authorities are the police – the ZRP. In a free Zimbabwe, the police force ought to act as the custodian of each and every person’s constitutional interests, freedoms and sovereignty throughout the country.
It is to the police that we should go for succour whatever our social, cultural or political affiliation is and they are constitutionally obliged to respond positively.
It was heartening to hear the ZRP Commissioner General, Augustine Chihuri, saying recently that should political violence occur, the police would “act with maximum and not with minimum force.”
We pray and hope that the Chief Police Officer’s words have filtered down to the lowest rungs of the ZRP’s structures. Not only that, it is absolutely necessary for the ZRP to act impartially throughout the country.
The incident in which there was violence in Parliament earlier this year left a sour taste in the mouths of many Zimbabweans who felt that the ZRP was found wanting at a time when it should have shown its professional brawn and commitment to the constitution.
The hooligans who invaded the House of Assembly on that occasion should have been accounted for, one and all. The image of Zimbabwe is seriously tainted by political violence occurring even in the country’s remotest corners.
Political parties should campaign by means of attractive policies and not by the use of violent ruffians. We are not living in the era of survival of the fittest, when our primitive ancestors prided themselves by their physique rather than by their intellect.