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Zimbabwe’s biggest opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC Alliance) has poured cold water on the much touted national political dialogue after it emerged that the party will not join POLAD under any circumstances.
By Tongai Mwenje
POLAD is the abbreviation for Political Actors Dialogue, which is a debating platform for political actors created by Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa soon after the controversial 2018 harmonized elections.
In his launch speech in May 2019, Mnangagwa said the platform was designed to be a vibrant forum through which solutions are proffered to the challenges that confront the nation, through peaceful, open and transparent discourse.
The platform is dominated by political leaders who performed badly in the just ended elections.
The majority of the players failed to secure 7 000 national votes each.
Only Thokozani Khupe’s MDCT, one of the POLAD members, polled 45 000 votes in the 2018 election.
Meanwhile, the MDC Alliance led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa with more than two million votes has continued to shun away the grouping despite calls for a national dialogue to resolve the political impasse in the country.
Surprisingly, calls for a national dialogue which apparently had died down was recently set in motion few weeks after Douglas Mwonzora was controversially elected MDCT’s substantive president.
The ruling party, ZANU PF, through its secretary for administration, Obert Mpofu on Sunday told a local print media that they are giving the opposition a last chance to join POLAD.
Mpofu further threatened the opposition, MDC Alliance, that they risked suffering political oblivion if they did not join the forum soon.
“Those politicians in the opposition who think they are entitled to preferential treatment and are immune from the processes which are endorsed by many other political players in Zimbabwe run the risk of isolation.
“The Polad framework simply enunciates a common national vision which is detached from partisan egos and inter-party smear campaigns.
“If they are sincere on dialogue, they must join others in Polad,” Mpofu told the Daily News On Sunday.
Undeterred by Mpofu’s warnings, the MDC Alliance – the biggest opposition party in the country said they will not join POLAD.
Responding to Mpofu’s rant, the party’s National spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said:
The MDC Alliance is not joining POLAD under any circumstances.https://t.co/IM4FkO0yRC
— Fadzayi Mahere (@advocatemahere) February 15, 2021
Mahere further said her party is not moved by such utterances and will have no part in the POLAD platform.
They’re certainly not tearing into the MDC Alliance. We are not moved. They’re welcome to proceed with their intra-Zanu PF talks. We will have no part in it. Our consistent position is that we will not join POLAD. https://t.co/5PQWxLpfbI
— Fadzayi Mahere (@advocatemahere) February 15, 2021
Meanwhile, newly elected MDCT president Douglas Mwonzora said is open to any dialogue platform in spite of the fact that his party has not officially joined POLAD.
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