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Polarization
may lead to violence during primaries
Habakkuk
Trust
April 04, 2013
The high levels
of polarization as the political parties are building up to the
primary elections, are likely to fuel political motivated violence
in Bulawayo.
Contributing
during the Habakkuk Trust Action Teams public lecture held on Tuesday
in Bulawayo, community advocacy action team representatives from
Bulawayo, observed that currently in most locations that include
Emakhandeni, Lobengula, Njube, Pumula, Nkulumane, Cowdray Park,
Mzilikazi and Makokoba among others, there are high levels of interparty
political polarization which ‘are recipe for violent primary
and subsequently general elections’.
‘Youths
are given beer and made to go and disturb meetings and are threatening
that they want certain individuals to be Members of Parliament.
It is happening now towards primaries and most of those people were
not there in our community before,’ lamented a lady from Emakhandeni.
An Action team
members from Lobengula said ‘they separate us when doing community
projects and in meetings. Now there are people known as “Councillor’s
people” and others are referred to as “the MP’s
people”. People have not beaten each other now but by the
look at things they will beat each other during the elections if
it’s not stopped.’
Another member
from Emganwini observed that ‘in my area people are just afraid
of the political happenings leading to the elections. The fear is
there now, especially when there are people who have begun going
door-to-door campaigning for their parties. They don’t know
if its genuine campaigns or it’s a way of identifying who
sides with which party.’
Meanwhile, the
action team members resolved that there is urgent need for Habakkuk
Trust to convene public meetings to educate residents about the
importance of peace and the negative effects of violence. The teams
also called for mechanisms to educate and monitor the behaviour
of candidates during the campaign process as they always fuel polarization
and violence.
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