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Suspected inter party violence
Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust (ZIMCET)
July 12, 2006

ZIMCET Harare/Chitungwiza region through the Mabvuku Tafara Peace Committee has gathered the following around the brutal attack on Trudy Stevenson and other Pro-Senate MDC senior officials just outside Mabvuku,

Victims of the attack are members of the Pro-Senate faction of the MDC.
The victims had just completed a political meeting in Mabvuku and were on their way to town when the attack occurred.
They were attacked by assailants traveling in a truck that followed them as they were leaving Mabvuku.
The vehicle used by the perpetrators allegedly belongs to the MP of Mabvuku, Timothy Mubhawu who has since been implicated in the incident and appeared in court.

The story behind the attack is that the officials from the Pro-Senate camp of the MDC had been going around Harare trying to establish community structures. In so doing, they allegedly were approaching Anti-Senate district leaders with promises of project monies so as to entice their support in the process. District leaders known to ZIMCET and allegedly approached in this manner are from Mufakose, Mabvuku and Chitungwiza. The individuals are willing to testify to this effect.

Information is said to have reached the Anti-Senate camp on the plot to use their existing structures to form rival structures. It has further been revealed that when the team approached the Mabvuku structures, they were told that names would be compiled for them for assistance in the formation of their structures. Unknown to the Pro-Senate officials, a trap had been set to way lay them. When the victims were leaving Mabvuku, they were trailed by the assailants under the guise of bringing the list of names of people prepared to work with their camp. The Pro-Senate team apparently stopped to get the names and this is when the attack occurred.

The version of the story from the Pro-Senate camp is that they were coming from a small meeting in Mabvuku when the Anti-Senate faction attacked them. They allege that the attack was purely premised on intolerance on the part of the other faction.

Information on the ground is that the assailants are indeed supporters of the Anti-Senate camp although it is not conclusive to determine if they were sent by a higher authority to carry out the vicious act except the revelations in The Herald of the 12^th of July 2006 claiming that according to court proceedings, the youth were paid twenty million dollars by the MP, Timothy Mubhawu and Abraham Kurimakwaramba, both of the MDC Anti-Senate faction.

From experience with working with political activists in the peace building programme, the region can safely state that acts of violent conduct such as the one perpetrated on Trudy and company had largely been reduced over the past year and the recent attack does not in anyway imply that political violence is on the increase in the region, be it inter or intra party violence.

It is common that party supporters often carryout violent attacks on perceived rivals, not always because they will have been sent by their leaders, but such attacks are often still attributed to the leaders. Experience has shown that political allegiance often reaches levels where party interests are guarded by supporters at whatever cost. It is possible that the youth that carried out the attack did so to safeguard the interests of their party because they felt that the actions of their victims compromised such interests. It is also possible that some leaders might have been aware of the plan to carryout such an attack and ZIMCET hopes that the law enforcement agents will do a thorough job to get to the root of the brutal attack.

It is unfortunate that such a violent act still has room in the current political dispensation that demands the merging ideas so as to tackle the national challenges that continue to drive Zimbabwe to its knees. We need to build bridges and it is unfortunate that some people still believe that violence is the solution to make a statement and silence opposing and divergent views.

Leaders from the rival camps should, after the establishment of the facts around the attack, make it very clear to their supporters that political diversity does not warrant the use of violence. Such a responsibility should not be confined to the press conference rooms and press statements, but should be seen through actions. If our leaders are indeed genuine in their calls for non-violence, they should realize that the use of hate language is unacceptable. Political violence is no longer an issue of the failure to accept political diversity in Zimbabwe as the nation now realizes the proliferation of political parties. Hate language has been largely responsible for intolerant behavior by some party supporters as they view the verbal insulting of their leaders as unacceptable and provocative.

The perpetrators of violence of any form be quickly brought to book in accordance with the laws of the country.
Leaders of all political parties denounce the use of hate language in the promotion of political tolerance and peace.
The media treat violence of any form and from every quarter as equally condemnable without sensationalizing some cases while down playing others.
The police continue to deal with cases of violence and intolerance in a non-partisan and professional manner.
The nation rallies behind all sincere initiatives that are aimed at promoting dialogue as a vehicle for resolving the challenges that Zimbabwe faces today.
Peace committees continue to bring together leaders of political parties to publicly denounce any form of violence and demonstrate capacity to deal with perpetrators through expulsion from the party if found to be implicated.

The issue of political violence and intolerance cannot be dealt with in isolation. Political violence and intolerance should be included in the ongoing attempts to build bridges by all stakeholders initiated by the churches. It should be realized that it is a culmination of a culture that we as Zimbabweans have allowed to pervade our social fabric over our post independence era. It is therefore everyone’s responsibility to ensure that some contribution is made, at an individual and stakeholder level, towards erasing such a culture of violence which is very unfortunate.

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