'My hands are clean' in post-election violence, Chamisa tells inquiry

Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa gives a press conference in Harare. File photo: AP Photo/Jerome Delay.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Nelson Chamisa gives a press conference in Harare. File photo: AP Photo/Jerome Delay.

Published Nov 26, 2018

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HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader

told an official inquiry on Monday he had not incited supporters

to take to the streets in post-election violence that killed six

people in August.

Nelson Chamisa lost the July 30 poll to President Emmerson

Mnangagwa, in the first election after Robert Mugabe was forced

to resign following a coup in November 2017. In the aftermath of

the vote, civilians died in an army crackdown on protests.

Chamisa 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 Motlanthe, 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 Aug. 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. 

Reuters

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