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Herald Reporter
Zimbabweans averted a potential disaster by voting peacefully in the just ended harmonised elections as violence could have presented outsiders with a chance to interfere with their electoral processes, an official has said.Presenting a paper entitled “Overview of Disaster Management in Zimbabwe” at the National Defence College in Harare yesterday, outgoing Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo commended Zimbabweans for showing political maturity during the polls.
“The country has gone through the harmonised elections in a peaceful and successful manner and we should congratulate ourselves for that,” he said.
“When we talk about potential disasters a nation faces, that (elections) was one. It was a major risk in that had there been chaos or violence we would be talking of a different situation in our country today. Some greedy outsiders would have found a way to come in and interfere with our peace which our security is there to defend.”
Minister Chombo said apart from providing security in the country, members of the uniformed forces played a major role in risk management. “The roles include damage assessment in disaster-stricken areas that are not accessible by land, reconstruction of damaged infrastructure and airlifting casualties,” he said.
“The uniformed forces also provide medical teams and drugs to disaster-stricken areas and carry out de-mining activities along the country’s borders.”
Online Reporter