By A Correspondent| There was drama in Harare yesterday when the 1 August massacre commission heard from the commander of the Presidential Guard, Brigadier Gen Nhamo (sic) who revealed he had more than 3 weeks before the deadly ambush on innocent civilians, already deployed the armed forces’s wing called the National Reaction Force.

The confessions pour piles of sand onto the very justification of having a commission of inquiry in the first place over the massacre of which ZANU PF has already passed a conclusion that the MDC is to blame for the deaths.

At least 7 people were killed by soldiers in broad daylight, but ZANU PF has to date been saying the people were not killed by soldiers. Furthermore ZANU PF has gone to the point of denying that the soldiers’ deployment on the 1st August was illegal and unnecessary. To date, the general claim by ZANU PF has been that the deployment was a sudden call due to public safety concerns in the face of escalating violence specifically on the 1st August 2018, blamed solely on the MDC Alliance.

But pouring-thick-sand on the whole commission, the brigadier general said he had already deployed soldiers in preparation for over 3 weeks before.

He (pictured) said, “On the 8th July 2018, I activated the NATIONAL REACTION FORCE.

“On the 10th of July 2018 now as the election days were closing in…on the 23rd of July 2018 an intelligence report revealed that the MDC Alliance were planning to unleash terror in the CBD if they were to lose the harmonised elections. It was also learnt from the Intelligence reports that the MDC Alliance had some intentions to seize government intelligence offices, to name a few the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission offices, ZEC command centre police general headquarters, Rotten Row Magistrates Court, supreme court, and High Court, and not forgetting, the provincial ZEC offices.  (STORY CONTINUES) VIDEO BELOW

“I am a member of the joint operations command with intelligence in our hands we sat in as our provincial GOC on the intelligence that was being availed to us with them and decided to avail in terms of the intelligence at hand and we all agreed as j o c that we deploy 10 armed policeman to these vulnerable [places]. . ”

” particular emphasis was the security of ZEC offices and z e c command centre… we had to ensure that we had POVs …

“Now coming onto the day in question 1 August….”

QUESTION: HOW CREDIBLE WAS YOUR INTELLIGENCE INFORMATION?

Answer: “From the past from which I am a member of the presidential guard… the intelligence that was provided to us was in fact very credible.

“On the 1st of August 2018 at around 1430 hours I received an urgent request from my colleague senior assistant commissioner Mvere, who at that time was the PROPOL Harare province, Mvere.

“The senior assistant commissioner who is also a member of the provincial joint operations command told me that the situation had deteriorated in the CBD that the police had failed… from that point it was not a secret that we could witness that the city was in flames.. smoke and also gunshots being fired from inside the CBD…

QUESTION: WHO ARE THESE ELEMENTS OF THE NATIONAL REACTION FORCE?

Ans: “Then at that point I also summoned is the tactical commander by the sub-national JOC commanders who in fact comprise deputy commissioner operations, the chief of staff major general… on that date we had Direct operations from the air force of Zimbabwe they summoned me to report to the Army Headquarters Josiah Tongogara… to the football pitch where they had landed….

“And then there was joint task by the commissioner to restore Law and Order in the CBD… that the police were unable to contain the situation.

“I was given these orders at 14:45; we then made out what we turn in military terms …deployment estimates whereby I deployed the CBD into 3 sectors. Information I received from the JRC commanders were in fact enough… please note and that the National reaction Force received instructions by the national commanders…. and the Senior strategic level.

“And the instructions were given to clear the demonstrators who had moved from being demonstrators to being violent.

“I then mapped the area into 3 sectors sector a… it has to be from between Enterprise Road to Sam Nunjoma Avenue…

Sector Bravo or the 2nd sector, was from…

“The last sector was from Chinhoyi Street to Rekai Tangwena …

“Was to secure the ZEC command centre at rainbow Towers

The deployment of the troops therefore I had to give them a line… or start point was along Herbert Chjtepo avemue.

Then sector A I then assigned a Platoon each.

Sector A:was commanded by Brig Tangwena.

Sector B: Lt colonel Murombo.

Sector C: – Lt Colonel Mangezi.

“It is unheard of that in military terms you can have a lieutenant Colonel commanding a Platoon..

“Therefore in sector a the Platoon started from Herbert Chitepo, Simon Muzenda, they then drove down Simon Muzenda. Where they encountered rioters….

“But along the way at the insects intersection of Simon…and Nelson Mandela that is when they came across a bigger number of the rioters and these vehicles support unit were stationed in the vicinity.

“The riotous dispersed some went along Simon Muzenda and 4th Street and others had to flee West along Nelson Mandela to harvest house. Then the Platoon had to split into two sections… along Robert Mugabe and Enterprise Road but they will never followed the section that went to the Terminus, the section received intelligence reports that there were people in the ZANU PF provincial officers who were trapped and locked up indoors offices and therefore can you come and rescue these people then the major who was at that section had to drive back to the offices of Harare provincial ZANU PF offices using the road that is in front of Roadport.  On arrival he had to rescue the people who were inside the ZANU PF offices in fact the … wanted to burn the people up. One of them was in a minibus that belongs to ZANU PF…

“While at the ZANU PF provincial offices.. when they enquired they were told that one of the rioters was shot way before the (soldiers) had arrived.

“Then the section drove down Nelson Mandela where the rioters were gathered and again when seeing the approaching vehicle the royalties dispersed towards ZEC officers immediately after the disbursement of …

“Remember if I’m to say it was a pleasure tune accompanied by members of the zrp command unit…”

Commissioner Matanga says minimum force was used because had they used maximum force, we could have counted a thousand dead bodies on the streets of Harare pic.twitter.com/0qxf4WPgPC

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) November 12, 2018