Merchants of violence warned

Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has assured the nation that the State will protect its citizens against all acts of violence and ensure that peace prevails ahead of the harmonised elections set for next year, saying the justice system will be hard on individuals found perpetuating violence.

He said Zimbabwe is a country that exercises the rule of law and called on the justice system to apply the law equally without favour on those engaging in violence as the nation seeks to promote peace and national stability.

Writing in his weekly column, President Mnangagwa said the Constitution was unanimously endorsed in 2013 across political parties and is non-partisan as it binds every citizen and clearly abhors violence in all its forms.

“It (Constitution) emphasises the primacy of rule of law and due process, over whims and violent reflexes, in the pursuit of rights and interests.

That Constitution and all the statutes below it provide no hiding place for violence, or those associated with any form of violence, including that inspired by base politics.

In interpreting the Law, our courts must draw a clear line in the sand, so there is no hesitancy or vexations on matters involving political violence,” he said.

Added President Mnangagwa;“Once convicted, perpetrators of violence should and must know they are in for a long and painful custodial haul.

Only that way do we send a clear signal to merchants of violence, and to the rest of society, that violence does not pay.

Threats to life and limb, and to the authority of the State, must be viewed as dire, and a clear danger to national peace, national stability and to those values that we live by, and seek to inculcate, entrench and bequeath to posterity.”

He, however, said the murder of Moreblessing Ali recently was not causal to violence that was perpetrated by the opposition to a family in Nyatsime.

“It would be insincere and deceitful to link the murder of Moreblessing Ali in Chitungwiza to the violence which was subsequently visited on Nyatsime Community.

That the two events were close to each other does not make them causal.

The violent actions by the opposition were clearly preconceived and premeditated.

Much worse, they eerily recall a pattern we witnessed in post-electoral 2018, and again in early 2019.

It has become an opposition modus operandi to unleash violence soon after elections,” he said.

The President said the Nyatsime incident was very much in character as the opposition has made it their modus operandi to unleash violence soon after elections.

He, however, lamented that the Nyatsime community did not have to suffer the violence which engulfed it on that fateful day.

President Mnangagwa said Chitungwiza and many other parts of the country held peaceful by-elections three months before and hastened to say in those by-elections and soon after, no incidents of violence were recorded, debunking the myth that electoral violence is endemic to Zimbabwe.

President Mnangagwa said any acts of institutionalised violence go beyond harm to immediate victims only but they challenge the authority of the State saying it is the role of the State to ensure citizens are and do feel safe at all times.

President Mnangagwa vowed to ensure all citizens are protected, women particularly.

“As the President of this country, I insist on the protection of the vulnerable in our society, our women especially. In fact, it is my duty.

No violence, let alone one leading to some traumatic end to life, as was suffered by Moreblessing, should be visited upon the innocent.

Moreblessing did not have to die that way and before her time; those accused of the crime should answer for that heinous act, once convicted.

We all should abhor violence in any form and for whatever reason. Equally, we all should cherish the protection of life and limb.”

–  @NyembeziMu.