Zanu-PF threats signify breakdown of law and order

SOME Zanu-PF youths met in Harare on Sunday to publicly announce and declare to the entire world that they are ready to unleash violence on the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC).

Their leader John Paradza emphatically said his party would unleash its dogs on CCC because they have the right to do so because they are the ruling party.

‘'We have noted that CCC is unleashing violence against us, but starting from today, I am unleashing my dogs because we don't have eggs in our hands. As youths, our mandate is to defend the revolutionary party and we are going to make sure we defend our party. CCC burnt houses in Chitungwiza and we are not going to fold our hands watching them unleashing violence," brazenly declared Paradza while addressing scores of cheering youths in the capital at the party's provincial offices.

That the orgy of violence in Chitungwiza also involved Zanu-PF members has completely been erased from the equation and only CCC is now the monster that needs to be ruthlessly eliminated through violence.

We believe it is high time God, the gods and our ancestors come to help us because honestly this country is heading back to the bygone era of barbarism. Paradza and his ilk's threat should not be taken lightly because saying so in a country we all believed no one is above the law, clearly demonstrates that there are people in Zimbabwe who are way above the law.

That Paradza is allowed to declare to the world that Zanu-PF youths are now taking the law into their own hands is telling. It speaks to a complete breakdown of law and order.

As has become the norm, our police will not say or do anything about this very serious threat to, not only our democracy, but the very fundamentals of the police force's existence.

The threat simply means we should stop dreaming that there will ever be any semblance of democracy in the country as long we have people who are allowed to exist above the law and go on to cynically boast about it.

We should simply never hope that we are equal before the law when we have people who have the audacity to call other Zimbabweans "dogs" that can be unleashed on fellow citizens.

We should kiss goodbye to law and order in this country when we have a youth who listen and cheer when they are called "dogs" that can be unleashed to cause violence on other Zimbabweans.

If this country had any law and order, Paradza should not even have dared to utter those words. But because the law and order in this country seems to be selective and applies only to people who do not support the ruling party, people like Paradza have unbridled latitude to threaten violence and nothing happens to them.

To such people, that an eye for an eye makes the world go blind, is nonsense.

But we could be wrong. And if we are wrong in our assessment of the prevailing security situation in the country as far as violence is concerned, then we dare the police to prove us wrong by swiftly arresting Paradza and charging him for inciting violence.