A month after Mozambique’s police brutal crackdown of nationwide peaceful protesters wishing to pay their respects to the late rapper Azagaia, police is yet to publish its much-awaited report on what transpired on the day.
In the wake of the crackdown and after much condemnation, President Filipe Nyusi told the nation that he had ordered the setting-up of a commission of inquiry. It was clear from Nyusi that such a commission would not be an independent panel as it would comprise of just the police.
The commission’s terms of reference would be to “identify those who wish to take advantage of the individual virtue of the young rapper, Azagaia,” he said, adding that it would also investigate what had driven police to “physically confront the youths”.
By those “who wish to take advantage of the individual virtue of the young rapper, Azagaia”, Nyusi meant the organisers of the demonstrations and a few opposition politicians, who came out in full force to exercise their rights to peacefully demonstrate.
Basically, the establishment viewed that peaceful protests as politically motivated demonstrations aimed at altering the country’s democratic order.
Coincidentally, since a press conference from police Deputy-General Commander, police have avoided doing the weekly press conferences, perhaps fearing that its spokesperson could be ambushed by journalists wishing to know about the progress of the commission of inquiry.
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