Johannesburg – Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa says he will soon appoint a commission of inquiry to look into the “isolated and unfortunate” post-election violence in which six people were killed when the military dispersed opposition protesters in the capital, AP reported.
The findings will be made public.
The July 30 election, the first since Robert Mugabe was forced to resign after a coup last November, was cast as a watershed vote that could pull a pariah state back into the international fold and spark an economic revival.
But the violence that erupted after Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanu-PF party won the national elections and the heavy-handed army response was another reminder that Zimbabwean society remains deeply divided even after Mugabe’s near four decades rule.
The deployment of soldiers and their beating of unarmed protesters set back Mnangagwa’s efforts to shed Zimbabwe’s pariah status after decades of repression under Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in November.