SENGEZO TSHABANGU: SWORN STATEMENT

EVIDENCE LEADER: MR THABANI MPOFU (To Witness)

Q: Please could you state your names again for the purpose of the Commissioners to hear.

A: Sengezo Tshabangu.

Q: You may start, Mr Tshabangu.

A: Can I go ahead?

Q: Yes.

A: I would want to first applaud the President for setting such a Commission. It’s the first of its kind. President, former President Mohlante I have no doubt at the back of mind that, I am very much convinced that submissions which are going to be led today would not end here. Firstly, I want to put it on record about the differences which may come in relation to party and the state. The President want to be assisted in coming out in the open, who gave an order for the killing which happened in the 1st of August.

The submissions relating to the events which happened during the Gukurahundi era. But I am a product born out of that era. In 2000 formed what was commonly referred to as green bombers during that time as a way for disguising it as an empowerment programme. They were deployed to each and every province by the state not by the party. But they were deployed by the party. In 2005 the state used it’s missionary in killing people under the disguise of what was referred to as Murambatsvina because they wanted to reduce the power base of the opposition in urban areas. When you displace the powerbase of an opposition they thought they will be successful in 2005.

Q: You have disposed your 2 minutes.

A: Can I go on I have only 5. This is the 2nd one.

Q: No, no.

A: Wait. Chairman, I need your protection. I am just chronicling the events that happened in 2005. The role that the state played. Not the party but the role that the state played. The violence that we are talking about it was not orchestrated by the party but it was the state machinery. They people who were killed were killed by guns. They were not killed by stones. They were not killed by stones and they want to show you that don’t, they are so many speakers who had portrayed that the opposition had a role in the killing of the people on the 1st of August. No. All that I am trying to put across is that it’s not the oppositions. Chamisa never had a gun but it was the State. Those people were killed by the state. It’s Gukurahundi.

Q: Mr Tshabangu I am not going to make you make an address.

A: Chairman I need your protection. I am not talking about politics. I am talking about violence.

CHAIRMAN HIS EXCELLENCE HONOURABLE MOTLANTLE (To Witness)

Q: The chronicling of events if you are reading from handwritten notes you can submit those and then give us your conclusion. We hear you very well when you say the State and not then party have a hand in the violence that happened in the past and so on.

A: Yes.

Q: Why shouting instead of giving us sequence of dates. What happened in 2000, 2005 and so on, that you can submit in support of your conclusion because we are doing this in the interest of time. If you can manage that. You have full protection. We are all ears we are listening.

Witness continues.

A: Let me just wrap it up. Again in 2007 chairman, opposition leaders were battered by the State. They were praying for the nations. Morgan Tsvangirai was battered. Professor Lovemore who is a Commissioner here was battered. He almost died. He was not beaten by Zanu Pf but he was beaten by the stage agency. In 2008 the political violence that erupted because of the disputed election, the greater part of Mashonaland people lost their lives. And the army was there at the fore front. The state agency were in the fore front of deploying killing people. In 2017 our lovely, who is now the President, he was almost killed in Gwanda with ice cream. Where were the State agency then? President Mnangagwa wants this to be done professionally this is why he put this Commission but they wanted to kill him. These Zanu Pf activist they don’t like him. They wanted him dead.

CHAIRMAN HIS EXCELLENCE HONOURABLE MOTLANTLE

Q: Why not place everything in writing? We believe we have captured the essence of your testimony.

A: I will, Advocate Thabani Mpofu. However, I was pushed to defend myself because I felt misunderstood.

Q: The Commission has heard you and will not restrict your submissions. You are free to write as much as you like.

A: Precisely. Thank you, Commission. We should support the President.