The central business district in Harare on Tuesday was turned into a war zone as all hell broke loose, with the police fighting running battles with vendors and MDC-T activists at the party’s headquarters, Harvest House.
The orgy of violence coincided with the arrival of South African President Jacob Zuma’s facilitation team.
In many ways, the team is able to see the extent to which parties to the Global Political Agreement have failed to gel in the unity government and continue to act in bad faith, much to the detriment of national development and the well-being of this country’s citizenry.
As these kinds of disturbances, including the bans of MDC-T rallies, continue to pile up, the likelihood of frustration seeping out cannot be overruled. It is these small, continuous actions that will coalesce into such anger that often explodes into national chaos and can derail a sitting government.
We have seen this in the Arab Spring and those controlling the levers of power need to beware. If the police, who are supposed to maintain law and order, are not careful given their propensity to throw out their neutral role, the country could soon be thrown into regrettable anarchy.
Just a small incident can trigger a series of events that will eventually degenerate into unprecedented chaos, so there is need for the authorities to tread with caution when such things happen.
The way the police are often so quick to fire teargas leaves a lot to be desired, as a lot of people are often caught up in the cross-fire.
At a time that this nation is so desperate for friends, particularly in its diplomatic war against the Western world, it cannot afford to lose the backing of the few friends it still has.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
It’s important to note that those few remaining friends are quickly losing patience with the arrogant and intransigent attitude that has for so long defined Zanu PF’s response to the world and to Africa in particular.
It’s about Zanu PF, which to all intents and purposes is the dominant partner in the GNU, walking the talk given its insistence that it’s a democratic party with the interests of Zimbabwe at heart. It is one thing to say something and quite another to act on that manner.
Although Lindiwe Zulu indicated their coming to Zimbabwe was not in response to these recent spurts of violence, should the matter be raised in their meetings, they should look into it.
And definitely, this will be raised as it clearly indicates failure to adhere to the provisions of the electoral roadmap agreed upon.
Although World War I began with the assassination of just one man in one country, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, on June 28, 1914, it sparked a series of revolutions that involved multiple countries and by the time it ended, about 9 million combatants had been killed.
Let’s not be drawn into avoidable anarchy!
