Mnangagwa should apologise for shootings

President- elect Emmerson Mnangagwa — who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) — lost a golden chance on Tuesday to apologise to the nation for the killing of at least six unarmed civilians who were gunned down by the military on August 1.

As thousands of Zimbabweans gathered to celebrate the 38th Zimbabwe Defence Forces Day at the National Sports Stadium in Harare, most citizens and indeed the international community thought Mnangagwa would do the honourable thing as leader of the armed forces and denounce the ZDF for its heavy-handed response to protests.

Many more were also anticipating that Mnangagwa, who was delivering his national address to mark this important day, was going to apologise to the relatives of the deceased on behalf of the army.

It was shocking that in his own wisdom, the president-elect instead blamed the MDC Alliance for the deaths of the civilians who were shot in broad day light.

As a leader who has been preaching about uniting Zimbabweans, Mnangagwa fell short in this regard and his silence on the issue will send a wrong signal to the armed forces.

Instead, Mnangagwa was all praises for the armed forces, promising to reward them for their work in and outside our borders.

Failing to rebuke those soldiers and instead praising them, will send the wrong signals to them as they are now going to be rewarded instead of being reprimanded.

In other words, Mnangagwa seems to be absolving himself from the fatalities as he lays all the blame on the MDC Alliance.

We are not saying the MDC Alliance was right for allegedly being involved but the party was not shooting people. The president-elect has to own up since he is the head, dodging responsibility will not heal the scars of those who lost loved ones.

In naming the MDC Alliance as responsible, we wonder why he is establishing a commission to investigate the circumstances around the shootings when he has already identified the culprits.

The commission will also have its hands tied as Mnangagwa has already given his verdict, rendering the investigation academic.

Equally, Mnangagwa promised to launch an investigation following the White City bombing, which nearly cost his life, but before the probe started, he had already pointed at some characters he thought had carried out the attack. Daily News