MDC-T fires salvo at Chihuri

Comment & Analysis
BY OUR STAFF POLICE Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri’s attempts to blame all the political violence on MDC-T while defending Zanu PF has re-ignited debate on whether he is fit to occupy the non-partisan office.

Chihuri last week told MPs that senior MDC-T leaders were responsible for the political violence rocking the country.

 

He singled out Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe and Home Affairs co-minister Theresa Makone who he claimed were abusing their offices.

The top cop’s statements were at variance with observations from local political parties, NGOs, churches and international organisations that have accused Zanu PF of perpetrating most of the violence.

Last month police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Zanu PF and MDC-T were equally to blame for the violence.

But Chihuri said no Zanu PF member had been arrested because they had not committed any crimes.

MDC-T said Chihuri was a “biased, partisan Zanu PF activist masquerading as a national, professional police chief.”

“For the record, we find it strange and abhorrent that as a public servant Chihuri has the audacity to rubbish his own Minister of Home Affairs, Theresa Makone, and the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Thokozani Khupe, and accuse them of causing violence in Zimbabwe today,” MDC-T said in a statement.

 

“It is also unbelievable that as the head of the police force, Chihuri has decided to ignore investigations into the 2008 violence as directed by the Global Political Agreement.”

MDC-T said facts on the ground showed that Zanu PF militias were responsible for most of the political murders, assaults and destruction of property. Police are accused of going after the victims of the violence and giving the Zanu PF youths immunity from prosecution.