By Paul Nyathi| A ZimEye.com reader has analysed the attempted suicide on President Emmerson Mnangagwa which has left a lot of people puzzled.
The country is awash with beliefs that the incident was a publicity stunt by the ruling party ahead of the elections set for end of next month.
After a real assassination attempt the following happens:
1. The president goes to a safe house and his location is not made known. In this case, the president is said to have gone to state House and then goes to visit the injured in a public hospital. In a real assassination attempt you don’t know if the threat is still there so you don’t come into public space.
2. You secure the perimeter for evidence and also just in case there are more explosives hidden. In the video, you see soldiers with AK47s attending to injured people. No attempt is made to check under the stage just in case there are more bombs. Also people freely leave instead of being barred and processed. Also people are freely taking videos near the epicentre of the blast long after the Vips have been taken out yet its supposed to be a sealed and investigative area.
3. The speed with which an interview with HE was done. Yes one could say it was to assure the nation that he is alive but it is the content if the interview that is more important.
4. The security personnel run away from the blast but none is seen positioning themselves with guns in hand to form a body sheild around the VIP area or at least around the exit used by HE.
5. A real assassination would have put a really powerful explosive and blasted the entire stage. In one sweep the entire leadership would have been wiped out. Why wait to do a weak attempt on the stairs.
6. State media would ordinarily report with caution eg blast at Presidents rally to avoid heightening tension and speculation. However in this case it rushed to report that this was an assassination attempt.
We don’t condone violence but this incident has too many weak points to be convincing.