Chronicle Editor
President Mnangagwa on Wednesday convened a meeting of political leaders who contested in last year’s election in an effort to initiate dialogue to resolve the prevailing socio-economic challenges and promote national cohesion.
Twenty-one of the 23 presidents who appeared on the ballot paper on the July 30, 2018 elections turned up for the meeting at State House in Harare meant to establish the ground rules for the highly-anticipated inter-party talks. However, MDC Alliance leader, Mr Nelson Chamisa and his Republican Party counterpart elected to boycott it.
Those who attended committed themselves to the principle of dialogue. They also agreed that political and economic reforms be implemented and for all of them to denounce the Western sanctions that have ruined the economy for the past two decades. Another important development was the leaders’ decision to form four sub-committees to focus on the institutional framework for the dialogue, the agenda items, the choice of the convener of the dialogue and for monitoring and evaluation of agreed positions.
“We owe it to ourselves as Zimbabweans to raise our country higher up the pecking order of nations,” said President Mnangagwa, speaking at the event.
“Outsiders can only come in to assist us but the prime responsibility for our country’s development remains ours. This is what sovereignty means. Moreover, true peace can never be imposed from outside, but must come from within our own society, and can be nurtured by us on the seedbed of dialogue, honesty and mutual respect. It is my hope that this inaugural dialogue by our political parties will provide a firm foundation upon which together and without undue foreign interference, we can build the Zimbabwe we all want.
As leaders of our political parties, our gathering together today is a milestone, which should always remind us of the supremacy of dialogue over conflict and of collaboration over confrontation, as instruments for nation building. As for me, I sincerely look forward to the sage advice and healthy exchange of views from all of you brothers and sisters.”
What we saw on Wednesday was a good beginning to a process that the President actually committed himself to holding at his inauguration last August. Then as now, he stressed the importance of national dialogue not only involving the political leadership of the country but also the church, business and other stakeholders.
All these interests must acknowledge the importance of oneness to ensure that our country prospers socially, economically and politically.
We have to express our delight at the overwhelming turnout for the meeting. They say “what begins well, ends well.” In view of that, we are praying that the good start will lead to fruitful dialogue that will rally the political leadership and the people they represent to a national consensus that moves the country forward.
Mr Chamisa exercised his rights to absent himself from the meeting but we are deeply surprised by that decision because he has been calling for this dialogue for some time. He recently claimed to have written letters to the President asking for a discussion on pressing national issues. Actually, one of the reasons why his party, together with its civil society partners, staged the violent protests mid last month was to force the Government to engage in some dialogue with him.
However, when the President obliged on Wednesday, the same person who sought to burn the country demanding dialogue decided to boycott the initial step towards that dialogue. We don’t know how and why this happens with Mr Chamisa.
Is he really committed to addressing the national question that he has told us must be addressed? Should we take him seriously when he says something else tomorrow or we must just take him as someone who always wants to oppose everything? We urge him to show a genuine commitment to the unfolding process. Zimbabweans are one people; they must have a meeting of the minds when it comes to key national issues and must, at all times, avoid unnecessary acrimony.
Moving forward, we must state a fundamental matter that the political leaders may not discuss at that forum.
Elections are six months behind us. The people exercised their rights to vote. Some voted for Mr Chamisa and his party; others for President Mnangagwa and his party, Zanu-PF. It transpired that a majority voted for President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF in an election that was declared free and fair by most observers to the poll.
After the election, Mr Chamisa appealed to the Constitutional Court seeking to overturn the presidential election result. He lost his case after failing to back up his claims of vote rigging. The apex court therefore declared President Mnangagwa duly declared.
The presidential election result as declared by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and subsequently upheld by the Constitutional Court conferred indisputable legitimacy on President Mnangagwa’s presidency.
Therefore, there can, and must, be no dialogue over the legitimacy of his incumbency over and above the collective expression of the electorate as enunciated by Zec and the Constitutional Court.
Otherwise, any other matter can be discussed in the dialogue that we hope must start in earnest immediately.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo