The Moverment for Democratic Change hasn’t yet established a commission of inquiry into the election violence but Zanu Pf is already running scared.
On Thursday, MDC moved two motions in parliament to investigate acts of violence that occurred after the March elections.
But Robert Mugabe’s party which is widely viewed as being perpertrators of election violence said the motion was not in the spirit of the agreement signed by the three political parties.
The motions, which were supposed to be debated Thursday were moved on Wednesday by MDC-T Chief Whip and Mutare Central legislator, Innocent Gonese and Harare East MP, Tendai Biti. However, Zanu-PF Chief Whip Joram Gumbo persuaded MDC to withdraw the motion.
Gumbo said the decision by Zanu-PF to call for the removal of the motions did not in any way mean that Zanu-PF was afraid to discuss the subject because it had irrefutable evidence of violence perpetrated by the MDC-T against Zanu-PF supporters.
“We feel that the motions do not serve to sustain the current political dispensation of working together. It does not bring any healing which is the essence of the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the three parties but would open old vindictive wounds, especially in rural areas and those areas that experienced political violence,” said Gumbo. He further said the motion was lodged unprocedurally.
He said the Business Committee whose duty is to receive and consider all motions before they are accepted had not sat to determine the admissibility of the motions.
The Business Committee comprises of the President of Senate, the deputy president, Speaker of the House of Assembly and the deputy speaker, and the leaders and Chief Whips for all political parties represented in the House.
“The Business Committee did not sit and currently it is not sitting until a new Cabinet has been put in place, so that renders the motions to have been unprocedurally captured on the Order Paper because its admissibility was not discussed. The Business committee can accept, reject, or request that a motion be amended and all that was not done,” he said.
Hundreds of people were brutalized by the police in MDC stronghold accused of supporting a party Zanu PF called “a British funded party” before and during this year’s Parliamentary and Presidential elections in Zimbabwe.
