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Politicians must shun hate speech during the crunch 2023 general elections so that we maintain law and order, police spokesperson assistant commissioner Paul Nyathi has said.
Nyathi said this in Harare last week Friday during a ZUJ press club discussion.
Speaking at the event Nyathi urged politicians from all political parties to preach the gospel of peace.
He said, “political parties need to lead by example and preach the gospel of peace in whatever they are doing, we don’t want double standards.
“They need to be careful with the way they use language because language is very powerful, it may either make or break relationships.”
Nyathi also highlighted some preparations which the police is undertaking for this year’s election.
“As police in terms of preparations we are currently conducting a public order training for our officers throughout the country and so far we have trained about 75% of our officers as we prepare for this election and we hope that by the end of April we would have concluded the training.
“Above this the commissioner general has set up a ZRP election committee to co_odinate the deployment of police officers to ensure that we have deployments at all polling stations,” he said.
ZRP message to politicians comes after politicians always use language which sometimes incite violence during elections.
In 2018, CCC leader Nelson Chamisa who was then the leader of MDC Alliance twitted that the opposition had won the presidential election.
Chamisa declared his party the winner of the popular vote and accused the election commission of preparing “fake presidential results.”
Former finance minister and current opposition politician Tendai Biti said Zanu-PF was attempting to interfere “with the people’s will,” and warned the party not to “plunge Zimbabwe into chaos.”
This resulted in protesters gathering in several points throughout the capital, many planning to march on the election commission headquarters. Protesters reportedly started small fires in the streets, and police retaliated with water cannon and tear gas.
Not long after, troops were deployed to dispel rioters and six people reportedly died.
Last year during the by-elections campaigns which were held at Mbizo Stadium in Kwekwe, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga also made “disturbing utterances” when he reportedly said Zanu Pf was going to crush CCC like lice.
In July 2022, Abton Mashayanyika declared that Chamisa and his family should be killed while addressing a Zanu PF rally in Mberengwa, Midlands province.
Mashayanyika, a bishop of the Habakkuk Apostolic Faith Mission, was captured on camera while making the utterances.
However hopes are that the 2023 general elections will be peaceful. This year’s general elections will be held on a date to be announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.