I had hoped to write on something other than politics but I couldn’t help it considering what happened over the weekend.
While elections in Zimbabwe are always marred by violence, I didn’t think mere by-elections would cause so much jambaja leading to a loss of life.
One supporter of opposition leader Nelson Chamisa was killed over on Sunday while 22 others were injured on their way to attend a Citizens Coalition for Change campaign rally addressed by the former.
What is even more disturbing is that a day earlier, vice president, Constantino Chiwenga had told ruling Zanu PF supporters that they would crush Chamisa and his party like lice.
He went on to describe how they would flatten the lice such that even flies will not make a meal out of it.
As if buoyed by their leader, some Zanu PF supporters in Kwekwe, the home town of President Emmerson Mnangagwa then attacked CCC supporters who were walking to their rally leading to the fatal stabbing of Mboneni Ncube.
One can only wonder if this attack was not pre-meditated, if they had not received an instruction to go and kill so as to deter people from supporting the opposition.
And if they can be so brutal when it’s just by elections, how will the situation be in the build up to the general elections set for next year.
If political leaders preached peace and living in harmony despite our political differences, I am sure there would never be unnecessary loss of lives as a result of political violence.
History has shown us that once leaders spew hate speech, people die. People were referred to as cockroaches and several were killed; now they are being likened to lice and a family is in mourning, sad, really sad.
In other news, it’s a bad season for us farmers and villagers in most parts of the country as most crops especially maize are now a write off.
In our area, we last had rains late January so basically it’s a drought and it’s going to be yet another tough year.
Maize is our staple food and once it’s in short supply, it becomes a problem.
Besides, it is a major component of stock feed and a drought means a spike in prices and again for us farmers, not good at all.
Actually not good for everyone as it will push food prices up as well.
