CHITUNGWIZA mayor Goodwill Mushangwe on Friday led over 30 aspiring councillors from different political parties in the signing of a peace pact meant to show their commitment to creating a peaceful and all-inclusive electoral environment in the harmonised elections.
BY STAFF REPORTER
The event was hosted by Chitungwiza and Manyame Rural Residents’ Association (Camera) and a civil organisation Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation (CCMT).
The dialogue meeting, held at Leisure Centre, which ran under the theme Peace and Elections, came in the wake of incidences of intra-party violence in the recent primary elections to select candidates.
Aspiring councillors from Zanu PF, MDC Alliance and independent candidates signed a peace pledge, where they agreed to uphold peace before, during and after polls.
“We shall recognise the rights and privileges enshrined in the Constitution by reaffirming the provisions of the Electoral Code of Conduct by subscribing to the political parties code of conduct of 2013 in support of and pursuance of section 10 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe,” the pledge read.
“In line with the sustainable development goal number 16, in good faith we voluntarily pledge to abide by the mentioned provisions to conduct our affairs in a congenial and peaceful manner at all times.”
Mushangwe also implored other candidates to desist from promising residents what they cannot deliver after elections as this may cause political violence.
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Speaking at the event, CCMT official Shadreck Vengesai said they had targetted Chitungwiza, as it came out top in a political violence survey they had held recently and hoped the engagement would help stop violence in the town.
“We hope that this dialogue would help to put to an end to politically-motivated violence cases in Chitungwiza. In our research on Mbare, Epworth and Chitungwiza, we found out that more uneducated and unemployed youths are often used by politicians to perpetrate violence in Chitungwiza than the other places,” he said.
Camera director Marvellous Khumalo said the meeting was meant to urge candidates to uphold peace and encourage their supporters to follow suit during their campaigns.
“After realising that we had a lot of cases of violence in Chitungwiza, we thought it prudent to help the communities in which we work in by bringing together all political candidates from different political parties” he said.
Meanwhile, all political parties are set to sign the peace pledge today to show their commitment to ensuring that there is peace during elections.
