The alleged bombing of the Zanu PF provincial offices in Gweru this week was a crude reminder that another crazy election season is upon us.
Zimbabweans have become all too familiar with alleged petrol bombs being thrown at Zanu PF offices or police offices by unknown assailants.
These have been followed by a massive clampdown on MDC parties’ activists who are swiftly arrested and thrown into filthy police cells.
But just like treason trials against prominent Zanu PF opponents such as those of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, Zanu Ndonga leader Ndabaningi Sithole, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC leader Welshman Ncube, all the cases have crumbled with minimum judicial scrutiny.
Pictures of female police officers who were allegedly burnt by petrol bombs thrown by suspected MDC-T activists ahead of the 2008 harmonised elections are still fresh in the minds of most Zimbabweans.
Yet as history has it, none of the MDC-T activists were pinned to those crimes and this has left more questions than answers.
As has become the norm, the Zanu PF provincial administrator Passmore Washaya was quick to describe the alleged Tuesday bomb attack as “an act of aggression by MDC-T activists”.
MDC-T provincial spokesperson James Tsuro was a bit more realistic in his assessment of the whole fiasco.
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He said if MDC-T activists were by any chance involved, they would have all been rounded up by the police by now.
Police have remained mum on who could have been behind the attacks at the offices at a building that also houses their Criminal Investigation Department and the feared Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
While it is still too early for us to pass judgment on this latest episode, we would like to urge the police to for once expose the people behind these mysterious bombs.
The authorities have always been quick to remind us that Zimbabwe has one of the most efficient police forces in the world and it is times like these where this astuteness is supposed to show for itself.
We are not talking about random arrests of innocent people whose only crime would be political affiliation and who are later freed by the courts after enduring torture and humiliation at the hands of our law enforcement agents.
Zimbabweans need to know who these arsonists are and what their real motivation is.
Otherwise speculation would remain that the alleged Gweru bombing is another ploy by Zanu PF to raise the temperature.
Keeping the political temperature high is in the interest of Zanu PF so that its unpopular call for elections in 2012 remains on the agenda.
Lest Zimbabweans forget, one of the most heinous petrol bomb crimes that remains unresolved almost a decade after it happened is the murder of MDC activists Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika.
The two were torched alive outside Murambinda Growth Point in Buhera in 2000 by suspected Zanu PF activists using petrol bombs.
The suspected ring leader was identified as a CIO operative, Joseph Mwale, who remains free up to today and still enjoys State protection.
