The last thing Zimbabwe needs is a police state where there is no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the government.
After saying that, the killing of a police officer on duty in Glen View, Harare, on Sunday must be condemned in the strongest terms; it cannot be excused in any way.
This is a tragedy; human life has been lost; this mustn’t be treated lightly.
But after saying that, while the police themselves must act firmly, they should do so with restraint as a disciplined force as failing that would further escalate an already highly-charged atmosphere, and all of us will be losers.
The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic), made up of all the three parties to the Global Political Agreement, this week issued a statement as follows:
“In the spirit of peace-building and national healing, Jomic wishes to caution various media against gratuitous apportionment of blame for this callous attack on uniformed police officers as this tends to politicise and trivialise violence against the police.”
The statement, signed by all the representatives of the three political parties in the inclusive government, further urged political party leaders to show maturity rather than inflame passions.
Yes, the issue needs careful handling, especially in this highly charged political atmosphere, not further inflaming.
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Glen View could now be at the mercy of the vengeful police, but we haven’t heard voices from the high and influential calling for calm and restraint.
This has not been helped by the fact that there is just too much spin in the Zanu PF-controlled public media.
“In the same vein, we urge the police to be as meticulous as possible in investigating this murder to ensure all the perpetrators of violence are arrested and bear the full brunt of the law,” Jomic added.
This is the same week in which five Zanu PF activists were jailed for three years each on a lesser charge of culpable homicide for killing an MDC supporter way back in 2002, in an attack of almost similar proportions to the unforgivable one on the police officer last Sunday.
The police, as reported in the media this week, have “declared war on the MDC-T” and scores of terrified Glen View residents are reported to have taken refuge elsewhere as their homes are no longer safe.
The police have called for the perpetrators to be hanged, but they must not behave like a lynching mob unless discipline was not instilled during training.
If they are seen to be taking the law into their own hands, who then will protect the people?
Is it still an investigation or a crackdown? Police should be primarily defenders of the people, not the State. They are not there to wage war against political dissent, but to maintain law and order without fear or favour.
There is need for the police to exercise professional detachment; they must be seen to be above partisan politics, and it’s well within their constitutional rights not to obey and carry out unlawful instructions.
Again, the police live in the communities with the residents so there is need to form collaborative links with them, and not camped in isolation in police stations, they both need each other in various essential ways; it mustn’t be “us and them”.
Yes, it’s imperative that the truth be established and the real culprits face the full wrath of the law, but we don’t need show trials where innocent people will confess to a crime after torture; where a government, for political reasons, arranges and decides the result before the trial begins.
Wikipedia on Show Trials explains: “(In) such trials . . . defendants have often signed statements under duress and/or suffered torture prior to appearing in a courtroom.” As I write, lawyers were being denied access to the suspects.
The root of all this violence could be the highly poisoned political atmosphere which is restrictive to other parties.
There are just too many hurdles thrown in front of other parties. It’s impossible to function as a non-Zanu PF activist without violating some law; that’s how impossible the State, through Zanu PF, which still holds and has tightened the levers of powers, has made it for other political parties to operate.
In such a situation, tension is always boiling under the surface, that’s guaranteed.
But, to some, this is a godsend to crush the MDC-T, and there are quite a few such political opportunists as seen from their expropriation or theft of the language and terms arising out of 9/11 to paint the MDC as rabid terrorists in the mould of al-Qaeda.
When pro-Zanu PF commentator Tafataona Mahoso was attacked as he was walking from a State function late at night, this was quickly blamed on the MDC, but it later emerged that he had been mugged by street kids.
Such people are not weighed down by conscience; they embody this culture of ingrained violence.
There is too much intrigue going on, what with the ubiquitous miniature national flags displayed in every other private vehicle for “free passage”?
The ensuing chaos from the killing of the police officer could well be in the interest of someone who has not yet shown their hand.
Politicians living in leafy northern suburbs stoke fires of political violence among the poor masses in high-density suburbs where people are treated as political cannon fodder.
It’s the same with the so-called national service; none of the children of the high and mighty are conscripted into the “Green Bombers” for “patriotism” training.
We don’t need self-absorbed leaders concerned only about themselves. This is repulsive and reprehensible from a moral standpoint.
Being a leader also means accepting defeat, not this obsession with position and status as eternal.
There is need for a mutually respectful relationship between the public and the police. The situation must not be allowed to descend to vigilantism or open warfare.
The residents, police, media and politicians are stakeholders in all this, so restraint and responsibility is expected from all of them.
There may be short-term winners and losers, but the nation will still be counting the costs, the same way we are shouldering the heavy toll from misplaced political and economic policies, especially from 2000 to 2009.
Yes, justice must be seen to be done because murder must not be tolerated, but there is need to establish the truth, the full truth, as it can be lost somewhere in these emotional cracks of a highly tension-filled situation.
