Traditional leaders, political party representatives of MDC, MDC-T and ZAPU, Church leaders, councilors and one Member of Parliament attended a Multi-stakeholder meeting held in Tsholotsho on the 28th of February to discuss possible strategies to promote peace within the communities. ZANU PF did not send a representative despite having been invited and promising to send one. The meeting was organized by Tsholotsho Agenda, a Chapter of Bulawayo Agenda in partnership with the Churches and Civil Society Forum (CCSF). Below are the meeting highlights;
- Participants expressed strong sentiments that security agencies remain the major threat to peaceful elections in Zimbabwe due to their partisanship.
- Police in Tsholotsho release violence perpetrators without due process of the law thus fueling community tensions and conflicts that result in violence.
- In apparent reference to POSA, AIPPA and other laws, the participants expressly criticized these and described them as oppressive pieces that should be repealed so as to allow civil society organizations to work freely with communities on peace building programmes.
- Devolution of power should guarantee protection of local resources whose looting by external communities has created conflicts over the years.
- Chiefs should abide by their traditional roles and responsibilities and stop meddling in politics so as to build unified communities.
- Headman Ndengwana confessed that his wife, who is in the ZANU PF structures, took names of villagers (ZANU PF supporters) who were not registered as voters to the Registrar office in Tsholotsho for registration.
There were calls by the leaders to for government to unleash the much awaited mobile voter registration program early as the current registration centers are few and inaccessible. Efforts by police to stop the meeting earlier on failed after a court order from the Matabeleland North Provincial court granted an order for the meeting to proceed.