Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD), a grouping of some opposition political parties in talks with the ruling ZANU-PF on resolving Zimbabwe’s crisis, have said there is no stalemate between mainstream opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa and President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Chamisa and his MDC party who insist that Mnangagwa did not win the 2018 polls, contrary to the Constitutional Court’s ruling, have refused to be part of the dialogue.
The MDC has instead insisted on an independent facilitator and the need for ZANU-PF to be sincere.
Briefing the media in Bulawayo Wednesday, one of POLAD senior members, Lovemore Madhuku, of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) said there was no stand-off between Chamisa and Mnangagwa.
“I think you people always want headlines perhaps for nothing,” Madhuku told journalists.
“There is no stalemate; there is no stalemate between Chamisa and Mnangagwa. You create it. It is a self-created stalemate, because what do you mean by a stalemate? This country does not belong to two individuals.”
Madhuku said Zimbabwe was not about two people only.
“How far low can we go as a country to think that it is about two individuals?” he queried.
“As far as I am concerned and as far as POLAD is operating, there is no stalemate. There is an election that took place in 2018, the result of that election, dispute or no dispute is now water under the bridge.”
He explained further: “Mnangagwa is the President as we speak now; I think everyone knows that. He is running the country. He has opposition; we are part of the opposition and these opposition parties are in different groups. We are an opposition that says, well we can give him ideas and then there is an opposition that says I am not recognising him.”
Madhuku said Chamisa’s supporters were the ones deliberately interpreting the country’s political developments as a stalemate between him and Mnangagwa.
“Chamisa is actually playing opposition politics,” posited Madhuku.
“He has chosen not to recognise the President, so he gains until 2023 that is his idea. He will go to the next date. I am not sure how he will get into that election. Currently, he doesn’t recognise the President. We know for sure that we will reach 2023. He will find an excuse to get into the election, to say I am going to participate because surely if he doesn’t recognise the government now, he will not recognise any processes that are coming under that government and so on.”
Madhuku further emphasized: “So we should not be drawn into the opposition strategy of Chamisa, which you call a stalemate. There is no stalemate as far as I am concerned and as far as we are concerned as POLAD.”
