Correspondent|Minister of Information, Publicity & Broadcasting Services, Energy Mutodi, has claimed that number of people who died under the President Mnangagwa’s New Dispensation is far smaller than those killed during Gukurahundi or the 2008 political violence when former president Robert Mugabe was in charge.

Mutodi was responding to media reports that Mugabe on his 95th birthday ceremony on Saturday blasted President Mnangagwa for sending soldiers to kill protesters.

He said: “We have noted some words of repentance by former President Mugabe saying army must protect not kill. True that a few have lost lives in running battles with the police but that can not compare with Gukurahundi or the 2008 violence when he was at the helm.”

General elections were held in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008 to elect the President and Parliament.

After the recount and the verification of the results, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) announced on 2 May, after over 4 weeks of awaiting results, that Tsvangirai won 47.9% of the vote and Mugabe 43.2%, necessitating a run-off, which was to be held on 27 June 2008.

Despite Tsvangirai’s continuing claims to have won a first round majority, he decided to participate in the second round. The period following the first round was marked by political violence.

ZANU-PF and the MDC each blamed the other’s supporters for perpetrating the violence; Western governments and prominent Western organisations blamed ZANU-PF for the violence.

Tsvangirai pulled out of the race and fled to Botswana, claiming as many as 300 of his supporters had been killed. Thousands others were displaced into safer cities of neighbouring countries.