By Nobleman Runyanga
Zimbabweans have always been regarded as very peaceful, law-abiding and hospitable people but a few bad apples in our midst are spoiling that reputation. Events over the past few years have shown the dark side of some among us who neither respect the sanctity of human life nor fear the law and this should stop.
It is sad that while our constitution permits freedom of association for all manner of human activities such as politics, those who shout the shrillest about the rule of law have been the ones who are at the forefront of breaking the law with impunity in the name of exercising their rights.
The MDC has brazenly exhibited this depravity in our peace loving nation. Despite looking up to the West, where the law is generally obeyed, for political and social role models the party’s members remain very fond of attracting attention through even the most criminal of activities.
In December 2016, High Court Judge, Chinembiri Bhunu sentenced three MDC activists, Tungamirai Madzokere, Yvonne Musarurwa and Last Maengahama to 20 years in prison for the gruesome and heartless murder of the late former Borrowdale Police Station deputy officer in charge, Inspector Petros Mutedza on 29 May 2011 at Glen View shopping centre in Harare. Some people of similar mind set as the MDC murderers such as the self-exiled journalist, Noreen Welch took to the Facebook social media platform on 12 June 2012 to heartlessly reduce Inspector Mutedza’s death to being a result of “a bar fight.”
This misinformation was obviously meant to fight from the opposition activists’ corner and cast their prosecution as political persecution. It, however, should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves as the facts adduced before the courts of law indicated that Inspector Mutedza was callously stoned to death by the activists while going about his constitutionally-provided mandate of maintaining peace, law and order.
Despite the sentences, the MDC’s penchant for lawlessness continued to rage on as during the January 2019 violent and destructive protests, which were organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) on behalf of the violent opposition party, claimed the life of another police officer. The late Constable Alexio Maune of Entumbane Police Station in Bulawayo was stoned to death by the violent protestors in that city. The late police officer had not in any way stood in the way of the violent protesters although the law empowered him to.
Apart from the opposition’s systematic targeting of police officers in the name of fixing and fighting ZANU PF and Government, another crop of Zimbabweans - the machete-armed artisanal miners – have joined the fray heartlessly murdering anyone who stands in their way. These include fellow miners, unlucky citizens and even law enforcement agents.
At the end of last month, a group of such miners, named “Team Barca” clubbed and hacked to death Constable Wonder Hokoyo to death during a clash at Hope Mine in Battlefields with the police. The murder was driven by the desire to avenge the death of their group leader in another clash with the police in Chegutu previously.
So brazen have the rogue miners been that the police at Mphoengs police station in Matabeleland South Province had to shoot and kill a group member of the maShurugwi, as the rogue artisanal miners are popularly known, after they attempted to forcefully release a robbery case suspect from police custody.
This incident proved what many people have always suspected – the adoption of the maShurugwi mode of operation by common thieves and robbers. This was further buttressed by the increasing cases of thieves operating in some suburbs of Harare targeting foreign exchange dealers and other citizens using maShurugwi deadly weapon of choice machetes and taking advantage of the fear which is associated with the rogue artisanal miners.
It is however comforting to note that Government through the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage has already pronounced itself on the matter and issued a strong warning to the rogue miners and, by extension, the criminals using the maShurugwi methods and weaponry. The arrest of nine criminals suspected of participation in the murder of Constable Hokoyo so far is a soothing balm to a nation which has been bruised by a few hundred wayward members of its society. One fervently hopes that the politicians at Harvest House and their excitable and impressionable youths are getting the message clearly.
The fight against the increasing spectre of lawlessness should be everyone’s war and go beyond the Ministry of Home Affairs. Inspector Mutedza’s murderers were sentenced to 20 years in prison and, going by the ongoing murders of police officers, it seems that this lengthy sentence is not sufficiently deterrent.
In view of this, Parliament needs to review upward the sentences for murders such as those being committed by the MDC’s activists and the maShurugwi members. Legislators should enact laws which make would be offenders to think twice or thrice before committing similar offences. They did this with cattle rustling offenders and the incidences have significantly reduced.
Zimbabweans should know that crime in the name of politics or survival is never justified. A political party cannot and should not make up for its lack of political acumen by murdering law enforcement agents. Whatever tough economic challenges we are facing as a nation do not justify the ongoing wave of machete murders of innocent citizens.
