President Mnangagwa is tomorrow expected to officially
launch the Political Actors Dialogue (polad) at the Harare International
Conference Centre, which seeks to bring unity among political players and chart
the way forward for the country.
The launch is in line with the President’s call after
assuming office for unity and common purpose towards restoring Zimbabwe to its
former glory and beyond.
POLAD is expected to engender a culture of peaceful
engagement among Zimbabweans as a mechanism to deal with any issue that may
affect the country.
This was said by leaders of some political parties that are
part of the POLAD process in separate interviews yesterday.
Zanu-PF acting secretary for Legal Affairs, who is also the
secretary for Finance Cde Patrick Chinamasa, gave a progress report on the
political parties dialogue during a Politburo meeting in Harare yesterday.
Zanu-PF secretary for Information and Publicity Cde Simon
Khaya Moyo confirmed the development.
polad provides a platform for the exchange of political
ideas and opinions in a peaceful and respectful environment.
A lot of political actors have responded to the call for
political dialogue while a few such as the MDC-Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa
unfortunately took this call for unity as a sign of weakness and embarked on a
grandstanding spree intended to keep their political lives healthy.
MDC-T vice president Mr Obert Gutu said they were committed
to the improvement of people’s lives.
“The MDC-T is determined to contribute to the betterment of
the lives of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe.
“We want to see the national economy re-boot and job and
employment opportunities for our people being created,” he said.
“Our main reason and purpose for participating in the
ongoing Political Actors Dialogue is to make a positive and patriotic
contribution towards the governance of our country.
“Although we are not in Government, we believe that as a
patriotic, progressive Pan-Africanist and people-centred political party, we
should be afforded the opportunity and a forum to put across our views and
suggestions regarding how the country should be governed.
“Our expectations are to have a mature, mutually
respectful, patriotic and progressive national discourse where all pertinent
issues are robustly discussed and debated without fear and/or favour. Where we
disagree with the Zanu PF-led Government under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, we
will clearly and fearlessly articulate the areas.”
He said one of the topical issues they wanted addressed as
a party was the scourge of corruption.
Mr Elton Mangoma, who contested under the banner of the
Coalition of Democrats, said Zimbabweans should always talk to each other.
“The first thing is that as Zimbabweans we should always
have is a culture of dialogue. People should be prepared to sit down and talk
about all issues and when we have disagreements we should always find each
other through dialogue,” Mr Mangoma said.
“I also expect that going forward there would be a lot more
tolerance to reduce the heavy hand that has been used to deal with
demonstrations and also a reduction in violence. We should also be able to talk
about anything without any sacred cows.”
Mr Bryn Mteki, who contested as an independent candidate,
said it was important that Zimbabweans realise that the country would only
develop through unity.
“Without pre-empting the message I will deliver tomorrow
the main message going forward is that united we stand and divided we fall,” he
said.
“I urge our people to take advantage of this historic
moment and would like to say as Zimbabweans we are one irrespective of our
political affiliations. The most important thing is that we need to revive our
economy and that can only happen if we are united.
“This dialogue process has shown that we need to be
engaging each other as a nation always and it’s my hope that those who have
shunned dialogue so far see sense and join us. I thank President Mnangagwa for creating
this platform which was not the case in the past.”
Meanwhile, leaders of political parties participating in
the dialogue are expected to meet today to finalise preparations for the
meeting.
“The leaders will meet today just to finalise the logistical
arrangements of the launch, but everything is at an advanced stage,” a source
who is familiar with the preparations confirmed.
The co-conveners of the dialogue process, the chairperson
of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission Retired Justice Selo Nare
and his Gender Commission counterpart Mrs Margaret Sangarwe-Mukahanana were
unavailable for comment.
The launch of POLAD is a culmination of an engagement
process that was initiated by President Mnangagwa when he invited for dialogue
leaders of the 23 parties that took part in last year’s elections.
The process is meant to foster unity and enhance nation
building and the parties held their inaugural meeting in February.
The dialogue is part of wider efforts to cement national
healing and nation-building. Herald
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