Charamba said Chamisa has to testify and face prosecution if the facts show that he has a case to answer.
“We want to establish the facts and soon after the facts have been established, prosecutorial action will be taken because we have lost lives. But more critically, we will have more elections for as long as this country lives as a democratic proposition. If we don’t send a clear signal that you don’t dabble in violence and trivialise life, it will mean that this thing will continue haunting us. It’s a very serious matter,” Charamba said.
“Yes, it’s about lives that have been lost, but more critically, it’s about lives that are still endangered by future elections. The Vanguard is mentioned in the Commission. There is a counter narrative to say we have disbanded it, meanwhile Chamisa is certificating them for their superb violence which draws fatalities.
“Who takes him seriously and is that responsible leadership? He is personally liable and he is also vicariously liable and the best favour he can do to himself is to go and put his own side of the story before the Commission. He should not think that he can throw people on the streets so as to abort processes.
“It’s not going to happen. If he thinks that his response to a subpoena is by throwing his demos in the street, then he is in for a very rude shock. He must be brought to account. There will come a time when we go beyond that to say for how long do we tolerate an argument which says the voter made a mistake to give us a certain electoral outcome when in fact what will decide the electoral day is violence in the street.”
The MDC said Charamba’s statements are “reckless and a revelation preempting ZANU-PF’s agenda in setting up the enquiry of shame.
“He makes it clear in his statement that ZANU-PF is set to reach a certain conclusion which is premeditated, any investigation therefore is meant to justify the end. What a waste of tax payer’s money.
“Charamba also exposes his misunderstanding of the justice delivery system, when an individual is arrested for a murder case, there ought to be proof and locations of his acts on the chain of causation.
“It is clear therefore that the people who pulled the trigger and those who gave orders are solely responsible for the deaths.
“Whether people were demonstrating or not is a different subject matter, if the force used by the military on the day was proportionate to the situation on the ground there would be no need to set up a commission in the first place.
“If the procedures of military deployment were followed to the letter, by now a brief of the deployment should have been brought to parliament by the President in terms of the constitution.
“It is therefore shocking for Charamba to claim that president Chamisa is personally liable. We have problems with senior government officials who utter statements meant to influence investigations. With the history of abuse of the justice delivery system in Zimbabwe such statements are unacceptable; in fact Charamba must reverse his statement. It is unacceptable.”
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