It takes a strong leader to ensure peace is realised on the ground’
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has been jolted by the death of Christpowers Maisiri, saying it was a scar on the conscience of leaders who preached peace, yet condoned violence.
Report by nqaba matshazi
In a poignant message published in full elsewhere in today’s NewsDay, Tsvangirai says political violence thrived as perpetrators were often allowed to walk scot free or rewarded for their conduct.
“The reason they do it and the reason many others commit politically-motivated violence is that as a country we have allowed a culture of impunity to flourish,” he said.
“In a normal society where wrongdoers are punished after due process of law, people are more likely to obey the law and hesitate before they commit offences.” The Prime Minister said leaders should take more responsibility on issues of violence, as big words alone would not lead to a cultural shift.
“As leaders we must not only preach peace by word of mouth, but we must make sure that it is realised in practice,” he continued. “Any person is capable of speaking great words of peace and harmony, but it takes a strong leader to actually ensure that peace is realised on the ground.”
Christpowers died 10 days ago in an alleged arson attack on their home in Headlands, with the police ruling out foul play.
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But Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party maintains that the fire had the hallmarks of politically-motivated violence, aimed at intimidating Christpowers’ father Shepherd Maisiri, who says he wants to contest Zanu PF’s Didymus Mutasa in the next election.
President Robert Mugabe on Saturday waded into the controversy surrounding 12-year-old Christpowers’ death, claiming the MDC-T was panicking and using the incident to gain cheap political mileage.
But Tsvangirai hit back, saying national leaders should not trivialise the death, but instead take responsibility seriously.
“As national leaders, instead of trivialising the killing of a young boy, we must be saying to our supporters, ‘Never again should this ever happen in this country, not when we move towards the election, not at any time in future’.”
“That is what leadership demands of us taking our responsibilities seriously,” he said.
The MDC-T leader said no amount of denials would cover for the death and instead more should be done to promote peace ahead of elections.
Tsvangirai, in his message, also hailed the Copac draft constitution, saying it put in place mechanisms that prevented such incidents of violence. He said there was still need to build a culture of accountability and enforcement of rules and principles that were enshrined in the new charter.
“Our society can be much better with the new rules in the draft constitution, but we must remember that rules on their own do not make a decent society,” Tsvangirai said.
“Basic human values and principles are the foundation of a peaceful and harmonious society.”
