OPPOSITION MDC leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday said his
party was ready for dialogue with the ruling Zanu PF party to end the country’s
deteriorating economic, social and political situation, but on condition the
talks are anchored on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s unresolved legitimacy
issue.
Addressing journalists at the party’s Morgan Richard
Tsvangirai House headquarters in Harare, Chamisa said: “I am not a lie. I don’t
want to acknowledge lies. I have said I will not recognise what is not
recognisable.
“We are ready to talk, but we are going to talk about that
issue (Mnangagwa’s legitimacy) as the first issue. It is a dialoguing point.
Let’s agree on that issue. Why are you putting conditions? Why do you want
Chamisa to acknowledge you? If you allege that you won the elections, why do
you want the acknowledgement of an individual?”
Chamisa, who narrowly lost to Mnangagwa in the July 30,
2018 election results announced by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, has
refused to recognise the Zanu PF leader’s victory despite the ruling by the
Constitutional Court upholding the results.
Several church and civil society organisations as well as
Chapter 12 commissions have offered to provide a platform for the country’s two
protagonists to talk over their differences and arrest the crisis.
The youthful opposition leader also called for
unconditional release of all political prisoners and for soldiers to go back to
the barracks following two weeks of unrest, which left 12 people dead and over
70 others nursing gunshot wounds after soldiers opened fire on civilians
protesting sharp fuel price increases.
Chamisa, who distanced himself from the recent protests,
said the opposition was compiling a dossier of atrocities and human rights
abuses committed by security forces during the crackdown.
He said so far, they had recorded 844 human rights
violations, 78 gunshot injuries and many arbitrary detentions.
“We are now escalating this matter to our regional bodies,”
Chamisa said. Newsday
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