While we have always been aware that the opposition takes advantage of international gatherings — Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting or CHOGM in this case — to provoke situations of violence in the country for the attention and gratification of their Western godfathers, no one ever thought the opposition would abuse the severed remains of a slain woman for the same debased end.
The remains of Moreblessing whose politics while she lived appear unknown or contested, became more than a family tragedy; it became an uninvited and certainly an undeserved curse on the otherwise peaceful Nyatsime community. We now know how vile politics blight peace and harmony in communities.
A greater curse considering Moreblessing appears to have met her violent end in circumstances that were both criminal and a-political.
A greatest curse because the perpetrators of the violence which followed had no demonstrable claim on, or attachment to her, whether political or biological. They came from outside Nyatsime for the sole purpose of causing havoc. They were outsiders who came from afar for the sole purpose of importing and causing havoc in a community to which they were strangers.
Worse, the opposition never waited for police investigations, arrest, trial, conviction or sentence. As a matter of fact, the accused in the murder case is yet to undergo full trial.
Yet Nyatsime has already been convicted in a political “court”, and punished by a political party. Such unlawful high-handedness, expressing itself as needless, politically motivated convulsions, deserve unqualified condemnation by all right-thinking people. No group of people must ever be allowed to take the law into their own hands, and to debauch our deep sense of humanity and decency.
With calm hindsight, we can now raise many questions, some specific to events on that violent day, others larger and thus societal.
As the President of this country, I insist on the protection of the vulnerable in our society, our women especially. In fact, it is my duty. No violence, let alone one leading to some traumatic end to life, as was suffered by Moreblessing, should be visited upon the innocent.
Moreblessing did not have to die that way and before her time; those accused of the crime should answer for that heinous act, once convicted. We all should abhor violence in any form and for whatever reason. Equally, we all should cherish the protection of life and limb.
Under the Second Republic, we have not carried out any death sentence, even where the law provides for capital punishment. I was myself a near-victim of State-sanctioned murder, sanctified as civilised law by the settlers.
Sitting at the helm of the State now, I can never countenance the same vile act meted out against any human being, least of all on any of our citizens.
There are other forms of punishment which can and should be visited upon those who offend against the law, and do so violently.
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