Recorded Chamisa phone call 'admitting he lost the election' surfaces

FORMER home affairs minister Obert Mpofu has claimed that snipers were likely placed on top of Harare buildings on the day post-election violence rocked Harare, leaving six people dead and several others injured.

Mpofu, now a full-time employee of the ruling Zanu-PF party, appeared Tuesday before Commission of Inquiry probing the deadly August 1 clashes.

The former cabinet minister blamed the opposition for the violence, adding that he phoned MDC leader Nelson Chamisa appealing with him to take his supporters off the streets of the capital.

He told the Commission that he recorded the phone conversation, "as I always do with suspicious characters. That recording will give you a story … he (Chamisa) admitted that he had lost the elections."

The recording was made available to the Commission which is led by former South Africa president Kgalema Motlanthe.

Mpofu also rejected opposition charges that soldiers deployed to assist police in quelling the violence were responsible for the fatalities.

He claimed that the killings were carried out by snipers placed on top on buildings by the opposition.

More to follow.....