The Zanu PF members who appeared before the Commission of Inquiry into the 1st of August shootings have nailed the Zimbabwe Republic Police for conniving with opposition protesters, prompting the army to intervene and rescue the situation.
Speaking before the seven member commission team yesterday, a Zanu PF member, Johanes Mutanda laid into the police alleging that instead of dispersing protesters, they joined the mob with their vehicles also being used to help demonstrators achieve their mission.
“We honestly do not know, to us, it was better for them to not to come because they did not assist,” said Mutanda.
Further asked to clarify if the police who manned the Zanu PF Harare provincial offices did not assist them, Mutanda said only one officer came and exhausted his bullets firing warning shots.
“There was one police officer who was manning our premises. He tried by firing warning shots they would disperse after he had fired warning shots but they would return.”
“The officer who was manning our premises fired warning shots several times up to the point he said he was running out of bullets.”
The commission further interrogated Mutanda to establish how the water cannons could not disperse the crowds when it is known that the water they use has the potential to disperse protestors to which he nailed the police for using pure water.
“The issue of water cannon, if you can remember, if you can visualize what was happening with this water, was it just water, pure water,? asked commissioners and his response Mutanda said, “In my view, I think it was just pure water. Had it been that it had some chemicals, the protesters would have dispersed.
“The water which was being sprayed from water cannons had no force. I once witnessed where the same water was being sprayed and people could even fall.”
