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Parliamentary Monitor: Issue 31
Parliamentary Monitoring Trust (Zimbabwe)
June 13, 2012

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No. No. No to Violence

Never again should we lose a soul over politics! Never again should one lose a limp in political violence. What about this being a pledge by Members of Parliament in the fight against political violence? Political violence is embedded in our politics. This is something that our politicians, to varying degrees of applications have employed as a tool to resolve differences and souls, limps and confidence were lost along the way. Our greatest problem is that we have this scorched earth approach, where we are prepared to destroy those things which may not only benefit us but our perceived enemies as well. This approach had killed the politics of this country. And it continues to kill the politics to the extent that people are not free to say what they want or stand for. The recent events in Mudzi where Cephas Magura, an MDC-T supporter died as a result of political violence brings to the fore how we are failing as a country to eliminate political violence. Our take is that the issue should be approached from different angles. One important stakeholder is the police. They should be able to work in a manner that issues of political violence are minimised and ultimately eliminated. How? One thing that has been lacking is the bringing to book of offenders. If offenders are, charged, tried and sentenced, then it will definitely send signals to would be perpetrators of violence. To date this has been lacking. Then another issue is for the police not only to clear meetings but to attend such meetings as they have a potential to be the origins of violence. Other important stakeholders are political parties. They should make sure that the supporters are reigned in. what we have seen is that the political parties only talk violence when it is convenient. Then the other stakeholder is the media and JOMIC, who remembers there is JOMIC. They should go deep and tell us what is happening. And finally, the People of Zimbabwe are the most important stakeholders who should not be used to fight each other.

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