Mugabe speaks about Zanu-PF's raised fist at the Heroes Acre

President Robert Mugabe says Zanu-PF's symbol of a raised fist was used to fight colonial-era white rule and is not a gesture of violence toward fellow Zimbabweans.

Mugabe said on Monday that the power of the fist symbol helped the party defeat colonial oppression and urged the nation to prepare peacefully for a referendum on a new constitution and elections afterward.

Brandishing his trade-mark clenched fist salute at a ceremony honouring guerrillas who died in the bush war that ended white rule in 1980, Mugabe described it as "the punch that knocked them down".

He said: "It was not for violence against our own kind."

The last disputed elections in 2008 were marred by violence blamed mainly on Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and led to a power sharing coalition with the former opposition brokered by regional leaders.

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