The Adventist Lawyers Association has condemned the politically-motivated violence which erupted in Murehwa, Mashonaland East Province last week.
In a statement seen by Pindula News, the lawyers called for restraint and tolerance from all political actors. Reads the statement:
As the Adventist Lawyers Association we have noted and condemn the criminal acts of violence and barbarism depicted in a video that has since gone viral on various social media platforms. The video depicts a group of young people subjecting and administering violence to certain senior citizens, the charge against whom seems to be that they had exercised their constitutional right in terms of political choices. We are appalled, to begin with, by the senselessness of the charge and are even more horrified by the indignity with which the violence was administered.
We affirm the constitutional values of freedom of expression and association for whom many gallant sons and daughters of this great nation gave their sweat, toil, blood and lives and take the opportunity to restate that there is no place for violence in our society; NO! not by law, not by decency, not by propriety. In doing so, we are guided by the higher moral ideals that include respect for the elderly and honouring them as parents and this constitute our faith, a faith that depends on its propagation for its sustenance and meaning.
As Zimbabwe prepares for the 2023 general elections, we call for restraint from all and for the creation of a just and democratic society in which plurality thrives. We call upon all to accommodate different beliefs and political inclinations and realize that in our diversity after all, we are one people, with a common past and shared patriotic vision. We are Zimbabwe!
We thus call upon politicians, community and church leaders to take their place and lead in ensuring that we have a Zimbabwe that we not only want but that we indubitably deserve.
We have no option but to hold both our people and our leaders to these standards of propriety, and so here we stand, our God will help us.