A political commentator, Lennon Manyengawana said that the Motlanthe Commission report revealed that the deployment of soldiers on August 1 was chaotic. He said that it fails to identify who really gave the order for the soldiers to shoot at unarmed civilians and this means that the Zimbabwe army can be commanded by just about anyone.
In an interview with the Mail and Telegraph, Manyengawana said
The real issue that people want to hear at the moment is what is going to be done to the people who shot these people and it is being said in a bracket whether it is just saying the responsibility of the of the deaths lays on the soldiers and the police but you are not specifying it, this soldier and this soldier shot people on this day because the blame is now being put on the command structure whether you are saying the command structure was not clear and there were issues so we do not know who commands who.
In an army where you are the commander in chief and you say you do not know who issued the command, it is a very bleakly statement that you could say as the commander in chief because every commander has to come through you. If there is another person who is commanding besides you, that person needs to be brought to book because it simply means our army can be commanded by every jack and Jill, they can call the army to go and shoot people in town and you as the president, you do not know.
The solder’s mandate is to protect the people of Zimbabwe against external threats or maybe terrorism but not to go and quench demonstrations so the commission of inquiry was a bluff, it was a waste of money because at the end of the day it did not answer the fundamental questions.
Related:
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‘Motlanthe Commission Caught Between A Rock And Hard Place’ – Political Analyst
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Parliamentarians Can Criticise Motlanthe Commission Report- Justice Minister