President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been criticised for being inconsistent and untruthful when handling issues with the public, especially regarding the August 1, 2018, and January 2019 killings.
The Daily News editor castigates Mnangagwa for his “bolt-from-the-blue admission” of deploying the army. The report reads in part:
He … admitted to deploying the army in January, during a three-day stay-away organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, in which more than a dozen unarmed civilians died.
Mnangagwa’s bolt-from-the-blue admission, which came via a notice read out in Parliament by Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, really took many by surprise because speculation at the time of the killings wrongly suggested the deployments had been ordered by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.
Interestingly, despite the fact that the general public was wrongly accusing his deputy of illegally deploying the army onto the streets of Harare to suppress post-election demonstrations, Mnangagwa never set the record straight. Instead, he set up a Commission of Inquiry into the August 1 post-election violence.
The assumption at the time was that Mnangagwa set up the inquiry in a bid to provide answers to at least two questions that were on everybody’s lips: Who ordered the army onto the streets of Harare to deal with the violent demonstrations and who pulled the trigger on defenceless civilians?
Related:
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Mnangagwa Belatedly Notifies Parliament On Deployment Of Soldiers On August 1 2018
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Mnangagwa Notifies Parliament Of Decision To Deploy Army In January
More: Daily News