Bulawayo — Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday reiterated his call for an end to political violence that has now spilled into major cities.

"We all want a new era in this country where knives, machetes, knobkerries, guns and booted feet as instruments of violence and repression are no longer fashionable," Tsvangirai told a prayer meeting for his deputy Thokozani Khupe.

"As a country we have been forced to walk the painful road of violence and hatred and we are not prepared to walk it forever more.

"We have seen state agents actively engaged in shameful acts of violence and the unbridled violation of the people's rights and freedoms."

He said the unity government he joined in 2009 had given Zimbabweans breathing space and the reforms it had introduced would lead to a better democracy.

However, he vowed not to support the Human Rights Bill in its present form saying it proposed that "victims of violence and human rights abuses cannot seek recourse or justice and that perpetrators are left to go scot free."

"The bill seeks to undermine the basic human rights that it seeks to address," he said.