Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa
Zimbabwe’s president says he will soon appoint a commission of inquiry to look into the “isolated and unfortunate” post-election violence in which six people were killed when the military dispersed opposition protesters in the capital.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took his oath of office on Sunday. says the commission of inquiry will make its findings public.
The violence two days after the peaceful July 30 vote raised international concerns about renewed harassment of the opposition even as Mnangagwa praised a “flowering of democracy” after Robert Mugabe’s repressive 37-year rule.
Mnangagwa on Sunday opened his speech by reading a letter from the 94-year-old Mugabe offering congratulations and saying he could not attend because “I’m not well.”
Mnangagwa first took office in November after Mugabe resigned under military pressure, and narrowly won a July 30 election that the opposition alleged was rigged. The Constitutional Court on Friday rejected those claims.
The 75-year-old Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe confidant, now faces the mammoth task of rebuilding a worsening economy and uniting a nation deeply divided by a vote that many hoped would deliver change.