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ZIMBABWE is a functioning multi-party democracy and people are allowed to express their political opinions and to disagree with the Government and each other very firmly, since these are rights guaranteed in the Constitution.

They are allowed to form political parties, a very simple process that basically means they need to tell the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission they exist and the commission can only tell them to find a new name or logo if the ones they choose are too close to someone else’s pre-existing name and logo.

Every adult citizen is entitled to register to vote, and that process is simple and quick, and is entitled to stand for their local authority council or Parliament, with age limits for senators and the President.

Any voter can vote for any candidate in their ward or constituency or for President.

So with all this freedom, freedom won in a hard liberation war in the 1960s and 1970s, why do some practice violence or try and incite violence?

Yesterday, at the funeral of Major General (Retired) Sydney Bhebe, one of those who fought and suffered so we can all be free to exercise our full democratic rights, President Mnangagwa made it clear that political contests should never degenerate into violence but had to be held in “peace, unity, love and harmony”.

Of course an election, the major contest, will see different visions, different policies and the like put forward, but we are free grown ups who should be able to disagree without hitting anyone or without throwing bricks into anyone’s windows, or without trashing and wrecking their home and business.

The President noted the coincidence that every time there was a major international gathering where Zimbabwe’s continual engagement and re-engagement drive was likely to make further progress, some opposition groups tried to create an incident to show how absolutely evil the Zimbabwean Government was.

This time there was violence in Nyatsime next to Chitungwiza using the excuse that a Chitungwiza municipal police officer, who was apparently a CCC supporter, had been attacked by her ex-boyfriend.

That part was correct with the CID now fairly convinced he was the person who murdered her and then mutilated her body before dumping it in an abandoned well.

It took CID less than five days after the discovery of the body to track him down, and obviously he was trying to hide deep in Hurungwe district.

But the lies being peddled were that this was a political hit with people even trucked in to turn up the temperatures.

Even now, with the ex-boyfriend in custody and apparently co-operating with investigations, the police have to maintain an extra presence in the area, so inflamed were people as lies were told.

But, as the President noted, there is a meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Rwanda and so there was a need to generate or create an incident and a dead and mutilated woman whose probable killer was related to a pro-Government branch-level politician was just the ticket.

Fortunately many Commonwealth countries maintain an embassy in Harare, and in any case their foreign ministries can read news reports, so they will know that this is a very sad killing of a woman by a violent ex-boyfriend, something that should not happen, but does, and that this suspect is now in custody.

The night-time manipulations by some foreign countries were also brought up by the President, countries who preach democracy by day and try and subvert it at night.

This sort of thing does happen around the world, or at least is suspected to happen if you look at court cases in Britain and the US, but that is no reason for us to accept it.

The President did promise that the police would protect people against political violence, and while that is comforting, regardless of how you vote, it is disgraceful that there should be violence to be protected against. Why should politicians want to hurt people who may not support or vote for them?

The CCC, a party with a decent Parliamentary representation, large batches of councillors in some councils and, from the recent large batch of by-elections delayed by Covid-19 with a reasonable block of support, has particular problems since it has no structure, no way of disciplining anyone and no way of mobilising support except through stunts.

Technically it has no membership. There is a self-appointed group of leaders, largely people who left their own parties to form this one.

But there is no party constitution, no manifesto or list of principles, no congress where members or their delegates can vote on policy, and no members. If you want to join there is nowhere to join, no form to fill in, no branch where you can put forward ideas.

Anyone can basically call themselves CCC and do anything they like, and apparently they do.

People like Major-General (Rtd) Bhebe and tens of thousands of others went through the most appalling war, and suffered greatly, so that we can now sort out our political differences with a pen in a polling booth, putting an “X” next to the person we want to represent us or lead us.

And the person with the most crosses is the winner. This is a very simple process and must be done in total peace, harmony and unity.

Thanks to those sacrifices we should be able to argue, debate and disagree in peace because the way to win elections is to try and persuade people that you are the best person for the post, and beating them up or destroying their home or shop is not the way to gain respect and support, and lying is not the way to prove your integrity.

We managed the large batch of delayed by-elections rather well and everyone who lost accepted defeat and there was no violence except a couple of drunks who became excited and had to be calmed down by the police.

Next year we have the five-yearly big general polls.

No one needs to worry that someone will be staging stunts that harm people and damage property. We can agree or disagree, but express that with our pens in the polling booth.