Speaking for the first time about her party's violence, she acknowledged it and sought to draw the line in the sand.
She accused the MDC of also committing violence.
Muchinguri said the mainstream media lacked journalistic integrity and had not reported or intentionally underreported MDC violence, noting the coverage was different if a Zanu (PF) member was fingered in violence.
"You cannot expect people to vote for you when you beat them up. It doesn't work," she said.
“If you kill in the name of Zanu (PF), ngozi (avenging spirit) doesn't come to Zanu (PF), it goes to your family."
A member of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC), Muchinguri said Zimbabwe must commit to peace.
She lauded the three parties in the GNU for drawing the country away from the brink of civil war and called on Zimbabwe to generate discussions to help understand what happened.
"Our objective is that we don't polarise our country,” she said.
“We need to build mutual trust between parties as far as possible, a society free of violence, intimidation and killings. We need a new mindset, new thinking."
She said the country should never go down that violence path again.
"We need to list all the bad things we did in the past. We participated in violence and hate speech. We need to commit ourselves to redress this. We need to desist from finger pointing and build a new country. We should not be emotional. We need maturity to handle this and close that chapter."
Muchinguri said despite coming from diverse origins, Zimbabweans were one people, one family.
"I appeal to all Zimbabweans to shun the divisive politics, and focus on the greater good of our country," she said.
"Whatever differences that may arise between us, we should amicably resolve in the national interest. We are never going back to 2008.”
Muchinguri said Zimbabwe needed to focus on achievements, not failures and better manage conflict.
However, despite her passionate words, it is in fact her party that is stalling progress in the GNU and refuses to take positive action to be seen to encourage peace and unity. Most of the reforms signed up to in the GPA and intended to prevent a repeat of the post-election violence have not been carried out – and efforts to stamp out corruption, patronage and violence have been steadfastly resisted by the top echelons of the party, the security forces and the party grassroots rabble.
Post published in: News