President Emmerson Mnangagwa has indirectly contradicted his spokesperson Mr George Charamba on the Motlanthe Commission saying the findings of the commission of inquiry to August 1 post-election violence will be availed publicly as the interviews were also done in public domain.
This trashes the views of Mr Charamba who had earlier on drawn criticism after saying that President Mnangagwa was at law compelled not to release the findings if he so wishes to.
The Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services said in a statement that President Mnangagwa assured diplomats during a meeting today that nothing would stop the commission to be availed publicly.
“The Motlanthe Commission Report will be published in full. This was made clear by His Excellency when he met Zimbabwe’s Ambassadors abroad. He said the hearings were done in public so the report will be shared with the public.”
In a recent interview with State owned media, the presidential spokesperson said President Mnangagwa is not obligated to share the report by the Kgalema Motlanthe chaired Commission of Inquiry.
The Commission of Inquiry into the August 1 post-election violence that left six people dead and destroyed property submitted the executive summary to President Mnangagwa a fortnight ago.
Sections of the public have been calling for the report to be made public.
Said Charamba: There is nothing at law that compels the President to release the report to the public or not to release it to the public. The discretion is his. Where he has a bit of a limit is in respect of how the Commission conducts its hearings in terms of the law.
He is required by the Act to spell out that the Commission must conduct its hearings in camera otherwise the presumption of the law is that it’s through a public hearing and as you notice, the President in the interest of openness, of transparency and to ensure that the Commission itself operates in a way that shows integrity, he decided to make the hearings public, which is why they were televised.
