Four years on: ‘Motlanthe Commission was a fraud, meant to mislead the region’

Today (1 August 2022) marks exactly four years since soldiers shot and killed six civilians on the streets of Harare during a post election demonstration over the late announcement of results.

Mnangagwa who won the presidential race by a small margin had to institute a commission, the Motlanthe Commission, to investigate the incident. The aim was to punish the perpetrators and find lasting solutions to avoid the same to happen.

But four years later, the victims of the shootings which claimed six people and injured dozens are yet to be compensated. Most of the recommendations made by the Commission are yet to be implemented.

In an interview with Nehanda Radio, Human Rights NGO Forum director Musa Kika whose organisation is also representing the victims said there was no political will on the side of the Zanu-PF regime to compensate.

“We are four years now down the line after the Motlanthe Commission report. Regrettably, virtually none, perhaps but one of those recommendations have been implemented,” Kika said.

“The only one that has been implemented is to align legislation around deployment of the military to what the Constitution requires. Beyond that, nothing else has been implemented. Compensation of the victims has not been extended to anyone or family.

“Reforms around how we do policing have not been done. Reforms around how we do our elections have not been done.

“Recommendations around bringing the perpetrators, individual army officers, to account have not been done. This is despite the fact that the perpetrators are known. It’s known who within the army did the shooting.

“No one has been arrested or prosecuted. No one has been taken to any disciplinary action. There are no regular reports that are coming from the State regarding what is being done.”

The human rights lawyer also accused the Ministry of Justice of lying two years back that they invited the victims of the shootings to collect compensation. Kika said the Human Rights NGO Forum and ZLHR were still representing the victims in courts to make sure that they are paid.

“Some two years back, there was a statement from the Ministry of Justice through Mrs Virginia Mabhiza to the effect that everyone who needed to be compensated had been contacted and asked to come to the department of social welfare to collect compensation. Regrettably, that’s not true.

“The forum has been representing a number of victims. Some have been represented by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and we know for a fact that none of our clients were invited to come to the Ministry to collect compensation.

“What it shows is that there was no sincerity in the first place. There was no political will. That Commission was done as a smokescreen to pretend to appear to do something but there was no genuine will to operationalise recommendations and implement them,” he said.

Kika further stated that there is currently no assurance that the shooting will not happen again during the upcoming election in 2023.

“So essentially, we were all taken for a ride as a nation. Victims and families were all taken for a ride and as of today nothing has been done and it does appear like a forgotten issue.

“In fact we are going into another watershed election with nothing changed, the conditions still the same and with no guarantee of non repetition.

Political activist Pride Mkono said the commission was a “fraud” meant to mislead the region.

“The government lacks the appetite to address the victims of the 1 August shootings because the beneficiaries of the violence are those in power. The whole commission process was a fraud to buy time and convince the region that sometimes was being done about the criminal conduct of the very same government.

“It was a ruse and as we inch towards 2023 the message of that dastardly act of impunity is clear hence we have Zanu-PF thugs threatening to kill the opposition leadership,” he said.

The Opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party demanded that something must be done to resolve the issue.

“Lest We Forget 1 Aug 2018. Today, we remember the horror that unfolded on the streets of Harare on 1 Aug 2018 when 6 innocent citizens were murdered by soldiers of the Zimbabwe Army in broad daylight. No one was ever arrested or held accountable, this matter needs to be resolved,” the CCC said.

The Motlanthe Commission was chaired by former South African president Kgalema Motlanthe.