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WE commiserate with the families of the two people who have lost their lives following an explosion at President Mnangagwa’s campaign rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo on Saturday. We also regret the circumstances under which they perished as they are not only unprecedented but dastardly and cowardly acts of terrorism which have no place in a peaceful nation such as Zimbabwe.

Our hearts go out to the families of the people who were injured and are currently undergoing treatment at various hospitals in the city. Our prayer is that we don’t record any more fatalities from the incident which has been condemned by all right thinking people across the globe.

While Zimbabweans were shocked to the core by the explosion which appeared targeted at President Mnangagwa and other senior Government and Zanu-PF officials, the manner in which the country has bounced back from that atrocity and quickly resumed normal life is testament of the resilience of the people of this country and their tenacity in the face of adversity and evil.

The perpetrators of that blast would have wished for the country to grind to a halt, wilt in fear, recoil in horror, explode in mindless violence and be in a perpetual state of paralysis and shock to the extent that normal life is disrupted. Crucially, the dark forces behind the White City attack were angling for the cancellation of the forthcoming harmonised elections slated for July 30 because they are virulently opposed to the new dispensation and everything it stands for.

We are glad Zimbabweans and their leadership did not give in to these merchants of death but are marching towards the inevitability of elections which will be held in a peaceful, free and fair atmosphere. We also applaud President Mnangagwa for providing astute leadership by assuring the nation of stability soon after the incident and proceeding to visit victims of the explosion like any caring leader would.

In any other country, a President would have crawled into a secure bunker and remained there until the security situation would have been deemed safe. In addition, the country would have declared a State of Emergency. But President Mnangagwa, in his wisdom, realised the futility of such a move as that would have entailed doing exactly what the perpetrators of that heinous act wanted.

Zimbabwe is marching towards a brighter future where the civil liberties of its citizens, freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution and their right to choose a Government of their choice are all guaranteed. These sweeping reforms, which are essential towards the creation of a truly democratic nation, are anathema to some people who are steeped in the ways of the past and are resistant to change.

They yearn for the “good old days” of oppression and dictatorship where they could plunder the country at will and line their pockets at the expense of ordinary Zimbabweans. President Mnangagwa has declared zero tolerance to corruption, opened the country for investment, repealed repressive laws and generally laid the groundwork for the economic renaissance of the country.

His reform agenda, which has been well received throughout the world, is rubbing some people the wrong way. The very same people who were targeted by Operation Restore Legacy appear to be rearing their ugly heads in readiness to destabilise the Government.

Clearly they are unrepentant and ungrateful for the leniency shown by the President given the manner in which they hounded him out of the country and sought to eliminate him. In comments soon after the explosion, President Mnangagwa said he knew who his attackers were and they were definitely not the people of Bulawayo or ordinary Zimbabweans.

The same people who have been trying without success to eliminate him in the old dispensation were still at it. Despite the treasonous nature of the assassination attempt and its bloody outcome, the President has urged calm and restraint. He continues to preach peace in the face of extreme provocation.

Zimbabweans are a peace-loving nation and we know they will heed the President’s message and go about their business without being reduced to a banana republic where violence is the order of the day.

We are glad that events at White City have not broken them but instead emboldened them to fight for the Zimbabwe they want. A country where industry thrives, factories reopen, jobs are plentiful, infrastructure is modern, schools and hospitals are well equipped and the economy is firing on all cylinders.

That is the Zimbabwe the President and his team are fighting for. That Zimbabwe begins with the holding of credible elections whose outcome will be acceptable to the whole world. Let nothing derail the march towards elections.

As Edmund Burke said more than 100 years ago, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing”. Zimbabweans have been put on notice. Let’s all work towards ensuring that July 30 comes and goes without incident and shame the evil merchants of death.