The MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa called on African leaders to stop undermining democracy, citizens’ human rights and stop silencing citizens as the continent celebrated Africa Day, Newsday reports.
Chamisa made the call in an interview with the publication. Said the MDC Alliance leader:
Instead of silencing the guns, we see there is concerted effort to silence the citizen and also to silence alternative voices and to silence the vote.
In Africa we must not have the bullet controlling the ballot. Politics must guide the gun. The gun must not dictate politics.
The gun in politics is not just the gun in the barrack, it is also the gun of poverty, guns of drought, guns of terrorism and violence and the guns of tribalism.
There are also guns of election rigging that have affected Africa.
Chamisa also said the continent needed to wean itself off a system of exporting raw materials to Western or Asian powers. Chamisa’s message coincides with the abduction and torture of 3 members of his party and the arrest of 2 journalists who were arrested on charges of disobeying a police officer.
More: Newsday