The group said politicians who are sponsoring the violence and public officials linked with intimidating ordinary citizens, should be arrested and punished.
A new wave of violence has erupted in the country with reports that ZANU PF militias, armed with machetes, sticks and stones, are attacking MDC activists on a daily basis.
The upsurge in the violence forced Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to seek an audience with Robert Mugabe a week ago, although little seems to have changed since the meeting.
In the last decade election periods in Zimbabwe have been punctuated by scattered rounds of bloodshed and tension along political lines. With elections due at the end of this year or early next year, ZANU PF has already rolled out its modus operandi, of answering calls for change with violence.
Political violence perpetrated against members of the public, particularly members of the MDC party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, shows that the country is not yet ready for elections. The outbreak of violence in Mbare and the intimidation of Harare civic leaders and MDC supporters in the rural areas, is a well-orchestrated attempt by the ZANU PF regime to cow people into submission ahead of the planned elections, the Centre for Development group said in a statement released Wednesday.
The MDC-T party accuses ZANU PF of waging a campaign of violence in an attempt to force the people of Zimbabwe into submission. Tsvangirai recently said the violence indicated that it was an orchestrated plan by ZANU PF to induce fear and intimidation.
Home Affairs co-Minister, Theresa Makone, last week expressed shock at the destruction of property in Mbare in the aftermath of the violence that rocked Harares oldest high-density suburb.
The Minister said efforts to contain the ongoing violence are being frustrated by the Commissioner General of Police, Augustine Chihuri, who has so far failed to act on instructions on how to deal with the spiralling lawlessness.
Chihuri did not bother to attend a meeting he was invited to by the co-Home Affairs Ministers, but is expected to be present this Friday when the National Security Council convenes their first meeting of 2011.
ZANU PF on Wednesday insisted that the MDC-T was to blame for the spate of violent incidents, a position that was corroborated by the police.
Bernard Nyamambi, an MDC-T councillor in Victoria Falls told us it was laughable to hear ZANU PF distancing itself from the violence.
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