POST-ELECTION KILLINGS
Kgalema Motlanthe takes oath for violence probe in Zimbabwe
Former SA president Kgalema Motlanthe was sworn in on Wednesday to chair a seven-member commission probing post-election violence that left at least six dead in Zimbabwe. The killings were part of a military crackdown that followed the disputed July 30 national election in the country. Opposition party supporters flooded the streets of the capital, Harare, protesting against the outcome of the election in which President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zanu-PF pipped opposition candidate Nelson Chamisa, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance. The chaos that ensued, together with court challenges to the result and a mass boycott of Mnangagwa’s inauguration, cast a huge shadow on the election, largely seen as the last hope for Zimbabwe to break from decades of former president Robert Mugabe’s rule. Army commander Gen Philip Valerio, a respected figure who headed a multinational peace-keeping force in Angola, reportedly had no knowledge of the shootings and demanded to know who ha...
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