Mnangagwa to announce elections date soon

Election dates will be announced soon, President Mnangagwa hinted at the weekend, but urged everyone to remain peaceful and shun violence as the country gets into election campaign mode.

Addressing thousands of people who attended the national field day at his Precabe Farm in Sherwood, Kwekwe, on Saturday, the President said Zimbabweans must put each other first, before their political affiliation, to ensure peace before, during and after elections.

"We are going for harmonised elections very soon. We must maintain this peace, this unity which we are enjoying," said President Mnangagwa.

"First, we must be proud to be Zimbabwean, whether we are poor or not we should be proud to be Zimbabwean.

"We must love our neighbours. The Lord above blesses nations that love others, who promote peace, who promote harmony."

President Mnangagwa said Zimbabweans were a peace-loving people and should always uphold peace, avoiding incidents of violence during election campaigns. They should strive to uphold unity bound by the fact that they were one people.

"We are by nature very peaceful people. Violence is alien to us. We are Zimbabweans. We should build our Zimbabwe; it is nature which gave us this land between Zambezi and Limpopo. Others are in Mozambique, it's the Lord who made them Mozambicans; others are in Portugal, it's the Lord who said they must be Portuguese. So be proud of your country.

"Be remembered for building your country, not destroying your country. Be remembered for uniting people not disunity. Be remembered for preaching peace and not for preaching hate."

Opposition elements, he said, were a normal occurrence in any society. The country, which is on an economic rebound under the Second Republic, was aware of its detractors that are bent on reversing the gains achieved so far.

Turning to sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West, President Mnangagwa said imperialists tried to push regime change, but the Second Republic had managed to circumvent the sanctions.

"Yes, sanctions were imposed on us with the view of causing disharmony amongst the people so there could be regime change, but not at any one point did the plan nearly succeed.

"Now, the reverse is what is happening; we are getting more and more enlightened. But in Shona we say, ‘in a family not all family members will pull in the same direction'. One or two will pull in the opposite direction and in our country it also happens. That doesn't make us lose sleep. In fact, it makes us sleep because we know who are pulling in the opposite direction. So it's our country: let us build our country," said the President.

Zimbabwe sought to establish good relations with all countries of the world under the mantra, "a friend to all and enemy to none".

This has seen the Second Republic embarking on an engagement and re-engagement drive to mend relations with those countries that turned their backs on Zimbabwe following land reform while creating new relations with other countries and maintaining the existing good relations with others.

Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga echoed President Mnangagwa's peace call.

"We are headed for harmonised elections in a few months to come and we must all be peaceful. Every time I am reminded of the late former Vice President Dr John Land Nkomo, who said peace should begin with me, peace should begin with you and that peace should begin with us all. So we all uphold peace," he said.