Your violence will not destroy Zimbabwe

I don't know your name. I don't know who you are or what your motives are, but I reject your attempt to harm democracy and our new Zimbabwe with your violence.

I am an MDC supporter, but when you attempted to assassinate President Mnangagwa at a peaceful rally, you personally attacked me and all Zimbabwe citizens.

While I will probably not be voting for him in next month's harmonised elections, I respect the difficult job he has done in uniting our country and moving Zimbabwe from dictatorship to democracy.

I admire the president for allowing me and thousands of others to march through the streets of Harare in the first opposition rally I have ever known where I didn't feel threatened and the police were there to protect me rather than target me.

I was even more impressed when I heard that a ZanuPF president cancelled a counter-rally by his own party in order to let ours go unaffected.

Our new Zimbabwe is being led by someone who never wastes an opportunity to talk about peace and unity and outstretches his hand to his opponent. I do believe him when he says there will be free and fair elections next month.

This is why I find the attack on him so inexplicableand so inexcusable.

We finally have a chance to have our voices heard, our votes tallied, and we will finally be led by someone of the people's choosing.

This to me is nothing short of a miracle, so those who would try and derail this blessed process do not represent me.

However, I will stand up and be counted. I will stand by the leader of my Republic of Zimbabwe, and I will stand by democracy.

I will say that we can respectfully disagree, we can get into heated debates and we can have political arguments, but our differences must be dealt with through words and not physical violence.

On this we must all be united, regardless of our political affiliation.

President Mnangagwa has shown us another way that we in Zimbabwe can pursue politics without violence or bloodshed, and possibly because of this he was targeted.

Those who targeted him perhaps wanted to initiate a new cycle of violence where all Zimbabweans would suffer, and perhaps elections would be cancelled.

I am delighted to see that not only was the president not harmed, but he did not rise to the bait and continued his peaceful language and said that the elections will go ahead as planned.
I hope this moment, if we can take any positives from it, is a turning point in Zimbabwean politics, where violence, bloodshed, revenge and reprisals are no longer the norm. We have waited a long time for this, for some, generations, but it has finally come.

So I say to those behind the attack on President Mnangagwa at the White City Stadium on Saturdaythat your violence will not win. Your hatred will not destroy our nascent democracy or our new Zimbabwe.

For that, I have to credit the president for rising above even against such a strong test of character.