HARARE- MDC leader Nelson Chamisa told an official inquiry on Monday he had not incited supporters to take to the streets in post-election violence that ended with at least six people dead, said killed by the military on August 1.
Chamisa narrowly lost the July 30 poll to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, according to official results which he disputes. In the aftermath of the vote, civilians died in an army crackdown on protests.
The MDC lost a legal challenge to the election results but still maintains the vote was rigged and that Mnangagwa lacks legitimacy.
“For the record, my hands are clean. My conscience is very clear and my resolve is unbreakable. These hands that you see have not spilled blood,” the 40-year-old politician said.
Chamisa said his party had not called for the protests and the demonstrations could have been hijacked by the ruling party to smear his party.
The commission of inquiry, led by former South African president Kgalema Motlante, has heard evidence from security chiefs who denied soldiers had killed civilians and blamed Chamisa and other opposition leaders for inciting violence.
Video from the August 1 protests showed soldiers, some with their faces obscured by camouflage masks, opening fire with automatic weapons.
Chamisa said his party would hold peaceful protests on Thursday against a deteriorating economy, which he said was a result of lack of confidence in Mnangagwa’s government.
“We did not give any instruction to demonstrate on August 1. When we make decisions to demonstrate, we’re an organised party with organs and structures, we don’t just wake up and say go and demonstrate, there have to be meetings… we have demonstrated before and we are going to demonstrate again as we are going to demonstrate on November 29,” Chamisa said.
The rally in Harare would call for a “transitional authority” to “move the country forward”, he told Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
“We need a collective approach … the people voted and that has to be respected,” Chamisa said.
