The Police officers on the ground were overwhelmed and could not handle the situation. n. It had become clear to the Police by about 1300 hours that they would not be able to contain the deteriorating public order situation. o. The Officer Commanding Harare District then wrote to his superiors requesting the assistance of the Army. p. As a result, the Commissioner General of Police invoked section 37 (1) of POSA and requested the Minister of Home Affairs to ask the Vice- President and Minister of Defence to seek the authorisation of the President in terms of section 213 of the Constitution for the deployment of the army to assist the police in the maintenance of law and order. The Minister of Home Affairs at the time, Dr. Obert Mpofu, told the Commission that the deployment of the military was duly authorised in terms of section 213 of the Constitution. The full record of these procedures as followed on the 1st of August 2018 was provided to the Commission by the Government, and is annexed to this report as Annexure 7. 4.2. Involvement of the Military The details of the evidence from the Military pertaining to the scope of its operations are set out in the next chapter. In this section and as set out above, the Commission has dealt with the evidence relating to the manner in which the military was deployed. The Commander of the Defence Forces, General Philip Valerio Sibanda testified before the Commission that he had been advised by the Vice President and Minister of Defence, General Chiwenga, that His Excellency, President ED Mnangagwa had 26 26