The Churches Convergence on Conflict and Peace Consortium (CCCOP) has called on politicians, especially government officials to refrain from the use of inflammatory and hate language that may incite violence.This comes after two people died and 17 others were injured at a rally held by the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) after they were attacked by a mob of Zanu PF members in Kwekwe Sunday.“The consortium mourns with the Ncube family who have lost their son (Mboneni) who died practising his right to political expression. We are also praying for the speedy recovery of those injured. The local Church is on the front line offering psychosocial support to the affected families,” said CCCOP in a statement.The churches noted that this violence came just a few days after the use of inflammatory language by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.“We call upon all politicians to refrain from the use of inflammatory and hate language that may incite violence. Political parties should restrain their members and those found perpetrating violence should be expelled,” CCCOP said who also lamented the increasing number of incidents of violent disruptions of Parliamentary hearings on the Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO) Amendment Bill.“This is placing the lives under threat of citizens who are actively participating in policy formulation and engaging parliamentarians.”CCCOP urged the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to actively protect citizens in these hearings as they exercise their constitutional rights of contributing to policy formulation.“We, however, also note that ZRP moved with speed to arrest some of the alleged perpetrators on the Kwekwe murder and assaults. We, therefore, call upon the justice system to also move swiftly in order to send out a clear message that politically motivated violence will not be tolerated,” the churches noted.
