Plot to arrest Nelson Chamisa via Kgalema Motlanhe Commission

Under normal circumstances, commissions of inquiry should appear to the public to be independent. The Kgalema Motlanhe Commission appointed by President ED Mnangagwa has failed to get widespread acceptance across Zimbabwe. President ED Mnangagwa breached the code of ethics (though allowed by Chapter 10:07) in his appointment of the commissioners. There is no doubt that the entire exercise is geared towards harassing/arresting Nelson Chamisa and his team.

President ED Mnangagwa failed to observe the rule of conflict of interest before appointing the commission. I am convinced that the president was supposed to distance himself from the task of appointing the commissioners. It is obvious that either President ED Mnangagwa  or Vice President Chiwenga unleashed soldiers in the CBD of Harare to kill innocent civilians. Among the objectives of the commission is to expose the person who authorized the deployment of soldiers on streets of Harare to kill.

According to the constitution of Zimbabwe, the deployment of soldiers is among the duties of the president. I therefore want to declare that president ED Mnangagwa was responsible for the deployment of soldiers. If it was Vice President Chiwenga who deployed soldiers to kill, why is it that president Mnangagwa failed to take action against his VP Chiwenga? Under normal circumstances, the VP should have been forced to resign pending investigations because innocent blood was lost.

It is also shocking to note that, soldiers who were deployed are known but they have not been questioned or arrested even today. If president ED Mnangagwa was a clean man, he should have ordered for the arrest of all soldiers who participated in the killing of 1 August 2018. It appears that the blame on the deployment of soldiers to kill is now directed to VP Chiwenga. If Chiwenga was a culprit, president ED Mnangagwa should have taken action against his VP just after the incident.

All in all, there is evidence to prove that either president ED Mnangagwa or VP Chiwenga unleashed the army to kill innocent civilians. Therefore, neither the president  nor his deputy should have been allowed to be part of appointing the commission because they are all victims. The president should have allowed an independent body (parliament or judiciary) to appoint the commission and commissioners, he should have considered the rule of conflict of interest.
In countries like UK, the commissioners should declare their conflict of interests before taking oaths. The appointment of commissioner Charity Manyeruke who is a known ZANU PF activist is questionable. The same to the appointment of commissioner Lovemore Madhuku a known competitor and critic of Nelson Chamisa in 2018 presidential election. Commissioner Madhuku should have told the public on how he was going to bracket his hate feelings towards Nelson Chamisa during the period of data collection through to report writing.

Kgalema Motlanhe Commission has failed to handle their methodology on the question of the person or organization that called for or incited demonstration. The police and the army are convinced 100% that the demo was called by Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa. The commission should have given chances to those who participated in demonstration to inform them on who sent them. It is in public domain that the police arrested more than 50 people in connection with the demonstration of 1 August 2018 and those people should tell the commission the name(s) or organization(s) that sent them on streets. The police deliberately failed to bring those (people arrested in connection to the demo) before the commission.
The soldiers and their leader who were deployed to kill in Harare are known but the army deliberately failed to bring them before the commission. It is obvious that those soldiers are protected by the army leadership because they know that they ordered them to kill.

Calling Nelson Chamisa before the commission is not a problem if his name is mentioned but president ED Mnangagwa and VP Chiwenga should also appear so that the world is informed of the name of a person who deployed soldiers to kill. They (President, police and army) want Nelson Chamisa to legitimize the illegitimate commission. President ED Mnangagwa declared his ill-motive when he insisted that Nelson Chamisa should appear before the commission while addressing a gathering. As a neutral person president ED Mnangagwa has no legal authority to force Nelson Chamisa to appear before the commission.

There are high chances that Nelson Chamisa will refuse to appear before the commission and the commission is likely to request for a court order so that Nelson Chamisa will be forced to appear before them. You heard president  ED Mnangagwa telling Nelson Chamisa to appear before the commission because he is a lawyer and that the process is blessed by the courts of law. What president ED Mnangagwa was indirectly telling the commission was for them to force Chamisa to appear before the commission via a court order.

There is no doubt that Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti will be implicated by the commission's report yet to be announced. The police will then move on to harass or arrest Chamisa depending with the recommendations of the commission. That is when the issue of the commission's legitimacy will come in and the only option for Nelson Chamisa to take is to refuse to appear before this Mnangagwa commission. If he appears before the Mnangagwa commission he will definitely legitimize it like the way he did when he agreed to participate in 2018 pre-rigged elections. The MDC alliance's position is that, the commission is fake, subjective and pro-ZANU PF. Nelson Chamisa should therefore refuse to legitimize the Mnangagwa commission.

Don Chigumba is a mixed methods research specialist can be found on twitter @Donchigumba