“The Commission’s finding, on a balance of probability from all the evidence received, is that the deaths of these six people and the injuries sustained by 35 others arose from the actions of the military and the police.” (Motlanthe Commission Report 2018)
Today, August 1 2024, marks the sixth anniversary of that blood-soaked day when six people were callously murdered by State security agents in downtown Harare in the aftermath of the disputed 2018 plebiscite.
The month of August is called Nyamavhuvhu in Shona, a reference to our own slow and laid-back version of the harmattan.
August is the month of breezy winds that often sweep across the plains and savanna grasses of this our beloved homeland during this time.
Nyamavhuvhu, an ideophonic allusion to mhepo inovhuvhuta, in the vernacular Shona language, is a nuanced reference to these breezy and gusty winds that characterise the month of August in Zimbabwe.
But exactly six years ago to the day following a disputed election, it was the murderous and malignant winds of State-sanctioned violence that swept across Harare when citizens took to the streets to protest the delayed announcement of the Presidential election result.
Six people were callously murdered by State-security agents in broad daylight and 35 others were seriously injured.
August, the month of heroes instantly became the month of villains when those who claim to have liberated the country brazenly killed the very citizens they claim to have liberated all those years ago.
The six people shot and killed by the military on that gloomy day were Challenge Tauro (20), Jealous Chikandira (21), Brian Zhuwawo (26), Ishmael Kumire (41), Gavin-Dean Charles (45) and Sylvia Maphosa (53).
I particularly knew Kumire, who came from Matope village in Mawanga ward 2 of Goromonzi in Domboshava. Kumire, whose daughter Mukudzei, now an orphan, was then a friend and classmate to my own daughter Lee-Anne at Santa Heights private school in this hallowed land of my birth.
Amid acute national political tension and the intense international gaze on Zimbabwe following those State-sanctioned murders, Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa hastily appointed a Presidential Commission of Inquiry in terms of section 2 (1) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act (chapter 10: 07) through Proclamation 6 of 2018 published in Statutory Instrument 181 of 2018 to investigate the tragic incident.
The Commission was chaired by His Excellency Kgalema Motlanthe, the former President of South Africa. The other Commissioners were Rodney Dixon, QC, from the United Kingdom, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Commonwealth secretary-general from the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Davis Mwamunyange, former chief of Tanzania’s People’s Defence Forces, Professors Charity Manyeruke and Lovemore Madhuku, both then lecturers at the University of Zimbabwe and Mrs Vimbai Nyemba, a former president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe.
This week, on the sixth anniversary of the August 1 2018 callous murders, I evaluate how far the regime has gone in implementing the recommendations of the Motlanthe Presidential Commission of Inquiry.
I make this evaluation cognisant of the fact that the Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry was appointed and executed its task amid frenzied hype, glitz and glamour.
The Commission’s public hearings took place in the razzmatazz of flashing cameras and even enjoyed the rarity of live coverage on national radio and television.
It is indeed pertinent to constantly evaluate just how far Mr Mnangagwa has gone in implementing the recommendations of his own Commission.
Dear reader, find below a brief synopsis of the main elements of the individual recommendations and a brief evaluation of the implementation or lack thereof;
I do hereby plead with you, dear reader, and give advance notice that the implementation scorecard of the recommendations of the Motlanthe Commission report is not for those of a nervous disposition:
Recommendation 1: Compensation
The Commission recommended the payment of compensation for all the victims of the August 1 2018 State-led murders.
Where the deceased had young children, the Commission recommended that they be urgently assisted with school fees as well as their general welfare.
The Commission recommended the setting up of a special committee to determine the quantum of compensation to be awarded to the victims.
Evaluation: Nothing has been done in fulfilment of this recommendation. In the first place, there was no special commission set up as recommended to determine the quantum of compensation nor was anyone ever compensated.
In February 2020, Mr Mnangagwa told diplomats accredited to Harare that his government had compensated the victims.
This was in fact not true as the situation on the ground told a different story.
While the Commission specifically urged the State to pay school fees for the orphans left by the deceased, I know for a fact this was not done.
I know for a fact that six years after her father was killed, none of Mukudzei Kumire’s fees have been paid and the principal at Santa Heights private school, Mrs Mapfumo has had to accord menial jobs at the school to Mukudzei’s mother, Suspicious Kumire, as fees payment for her orphaned daughter.
This recommendation for compensation has not been implemented in any manner or form.
Recommendation 2: Political parties’ registration
The Commission noted and recommended the registration of all political parties so as to ensure accountability of the party leaders. The Commission called for political parties to preach peace and unity for the benefit of all Zimbabweans.
Evaluation: Nothing has happened. Political parties have yet to be registered while political leaders, particularly Mr Mnangagwa, continues to speak with a forked tongue by preaching peace during the day while his supporters run amok and kill political opponents.
Opposition party supporters Nyasha Zhambe of Gutu, Moreblessings Ali ofChitungwiza and Mboneni Ncube of Kwekwe were killed by members of Mr Mnangagwa’s party years after the Commission had recommended that political party leaders should preach peace.
In short, this recommendation has not been implemented.
Recommendation 3: Electoral Reforms
In order to enhance efficiency and transparency, the Commission specifically recommended the development of ICT facilities for the expeditious transmission of results to the Command centre.
The Commission also recommended that Parliament considers adopting legislation that shortens the time taken to announce Presidential results in future elections.
Evaluation: Zimbabweans continue to make the shrill cry for electoral reforms. We haven’t heard that ZEC has developed its ICT infrastructure for the expeditious transmission of results as recommended by the Commission.
In fact, Presidential election results continue to be transmitted through a very murky and secretive route.
As I write, the country is mired in a huge election scandal, ZECgate, in which it has turned out that in the 2023 election, five years after the Motlanthe Commission made its recommendations, Mr Mnangagwa chose the company that supplied the voting material in an election in which he was a candidate.
Curiously, despite being a candidate in the same election in the last election in 2023, Mr Mnangagwa’s office specifically paid for the line item that relates to the transmission of the election results, which transmission remains mired in secret despite the transparency that the Commission had exhorted in its recommendations..
Neither has Parliament moved and adopted legislation to shorten the transmission of Presidential election results as recommended by the Motlanthe Commission.
In short, there has been zero implementation on this recommendation. In fact, the situation has gotten worse.
Recommendation 4: Enforcement of Law and Order
The Commission recommended the alignment of POSA with the Constitution on the internal deployment of the military.
The Commission noted that the use of the military to assist the police in controlling rioters should be a last resort.
The Commission also recommended that the use of live ammunition as warning shots be discouraged.
Evaluation: POSA, now MOPA, may have been amended but it is still to be aligned to the Constitution, particularly with respect to the deployment of the military internally.
Army General Anseleem Sanyatwe’s recent rant in Nyanga about command voting shows that behaviour of the police and the military towards the citizens during elections remains unchanged.
Recommendation 5: Nation – building and reconciliation
In the main, the Committee recommended the establishment of a multi-party reconciliation initiative. It also urged the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission to increase its efforts to fully implement its mandate (NB. This was a respectful way to say the NPRC was failing in delivering its mandate).
Evaluation: There has been zero implementation as the NPRC has maintained its laid-back approach while the multi-party reconciliation initiative is still to be established some six years later.
Recommendation 6: Accountability
This is by far the most important recommendation.
The Commission said it was imperative for the police to complete investigations to enable the prosecution of those responsible for the murders and all alleged crimes.
The Commission stated that those particular members of the police and the military found to have been in breach of their professional duties on the particular day be identified “as soon as possible” so that appropriate sanction be taken.
Evaluation: No culprit within the police and the military has been investigated or identified, let alone arrested or faced any sanction.
No one, absolutely no one, has been arrested or sanctioned.
Zero accountability on anyone, particularly the perpetrators of this heinous crime of murder!
Sanyatwe, who was head of the Presidential Guard and whose troops allegedly committed the heinous murders, has in fact been promoted and is now the commander of the Zimbabwe National Army and continues to make very disturbing and unconstitutional rants.
It is also pertinent to state here that because he is the |Commander-In-Chief, in other words the ultimate head of the country’s security services, Mr Mnangagwa himself must shoulder responsibility for what his troops did on August 1, 2018.
Conclusion: Much ado about nothing
The implementation scorecard of the recommendations of the Presidential Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry is zero out six. This is because of the six recommendations by the Commission; none has been implemented six years later.
It was therefore all much ado about nothing.
The expensive international Commission whose expenses included international flight tickets for the commissioners, the plush hotel accommodation, the hefty allowances for the individual Commissioners and the loud hype about the work of the Commission was all much ado about nothing.
The much-hyped media puff and televised live coverage was all a grand PR exercise to appease an international community searching for answers and a restive local populace that expected the government to do something about the callous murders it had committed on its own soil and to its own citizens..
It was callous State terrorism to which there is no closure six years later.
No one has been held to account.
Six years later, no one has been summoned, investigated, arrested or made to answer for the grisly murders.
Mr Mnangagwa has simply ignored all the recommendations of his own Commission.
At Santa Heights primary school in Domboshava, Mukudzei’s mother Suspicious, widowed through State terrorism, continues to hustle and to do menial work at the school to ensure that her child, now in Grade Six, goes to school.
Young Mukudzei’s parlous life is testimony to the fact that this is in no way a new Dispensation but a more malignant and more murderous version of Robert Mugabe’s blood-soaked tenure.
This is an edited version of a piece first published in August 2023. Luke Tamborinyoka is a citizen from Domboshava. He is a journalist and a political scientist by profession. You can interact with him via his facebook page or via the X handle @luke_tambo
