Zanu PF has reiterated the call for peace before, during and after next month’s harmonised elections, with the party’s leadership in Masvingo saying it would not be provoked into engaging in retaliatory violence in Mwenezi district where its senior party official was attacked and left for dead allegedly by supporters of an independent candidate.
Muraba party district chair for Ward 17 in Mwenezi Rural District Council, Cde Munyaradzi Shoko, was recently hospitalised at Neshuro District Hospital after being savagely attacked.
Cde Shoko sustained severe injuries on the head, upper body, hands and limbs and his condition was said to be serious but stable in hospital.
Two of Cde Shoko’s alleged assailants were identified and police have launched a manhunt for them.
In an interview on Tuesday, Zanu PF Masvingo provincial chair Cde Rabson Mavhenyengwa said: “Our party leader in Mwenezi West Cde Shoko is battling serious injuries in hospital at Neshuro after being attacked. . . but we are a non-violent party and stand guided by what our leader and Presidential candidate Cde ED Mnangagwa has said, ‘no to violence’. So we will leave everything in the hands of the police. The long-arm of the law should bring the culprits to book.”
Cde Mavhenyengwa said any Zanu PF supporters who engage in the violence would face the music on their own.
“We do not condone violence at all costs and even in cases of provocation, we will leave the police to do their job.
“We are a non-violent party and we believe that various programmes that were rolled out by the Second Republic under President Mnangagwa are enough to win a crushing electoral triumph for Zanu PF and its presidential candidate,” he said.
“We will win big in Masvingo in local government, legislative and presidential elections and people are defecting from the opposition in their hundreds because they have discovered that the opposition has nothing to offer.’’
Cde Mavhenyengwa called on police to thoroughly investigate the grisly attack on Cde Shoko until everyone involved is brought to book.
‘’We want tolerance like what our President has been preaching. People and their political parties should canvass for votes freely and we are not worried because we know Zanu PF and President Mnangagwa will win resoundingly.’’
Mwenezi is traditionally a peaceful area and the attack on Cde Shoko ahead of this year’s elections is likely to blemish the district’s long standing reputation for overwhelming peace. Herald
