The never-ending problem of violence in Zimbabwe has of course arisen again. The police, whom are obviously supporting President Mugabe’s party, Zanu-PF, aim to intimidate and scare the people of Zimbabwe in order to vote for Zanu-PF, however this instilling of ‘fear’ has now turned into actual physical violence.
It is astounding to see that people whom are suffering from Mugabe’s doings are actually making it worse for themselves. It is as if they enjoy the violent drama and get a thrill from arresting or brutally hurting another human being. The police force can clearly not see that “prominent civil groups” and “human rights monitors” are only trying to improve the country and help proved free flowing elections, not make matters worse.
In saying this, it is very pleasing and encouraging to see that the levels of violence and force have not escalated to the extent of that during the 2008 elections. AFP reported that more that 200 people were killed and many more were affected by either getting arrested, tortured and even disappearing. However, one cannot be too sure of whether the violence is to increase or not.
It is going against all human rights if the police are able to do this to citizens, and this is where the international community does need to step into place, not necessarily the African Nation Congress (ANC) as Jacob Zuma and Robert Mugabe are believed to be friends that support one another. A mutual party needs to be the one whom delegates and to try alleviate all tension. Although Mugabe and Zuma are ‘friends’, Mugage and his party can naturally gone again the coalition agreement put together by Southern African leaders. This includes cutting out all violence and spiteful arrests of opponents.
Many people may turn around and blame Tsvangarai for not stepping in and helping the joint governance and for not trying to stop this violence. But after all, Mugabe is the one with the most power in Zimbabwe at this present moment, and he will make sure that anyone who steps in his way will be defeated. In correspondence to this opinion of Mugabe having all the power, I do not necessarily agree with Lovemore Madhuku, chairperson of the pro-democracy group the National Constitutional Assembly. He stated that the problems go further than the government, and that the state has a great amount to do with the issues that Zimbabwe face, such as poverty, financial crisis, and food and petrol shortages etc. As I mentioned earlier, Mugabe has all the mighty and control in Zimbabwe, and so he most probably alters whatever the state my say.
To be honest I do not see what is so wrong with distributing radios? There is obviously something that Mugabe wants to hide and not let anyone else but his community/ society know about? People have the right to hear what is going on if the media is broadcasting it. So yes, Madhuku would most probably be right when saying, “it shows the failure of our society”, and it is clear evidence of what is happening currently and not what is going to happen.
ZimPol.Vol 