President Mnangagwa is happy with the work that the
Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) is doing to bring solutions to some of the
challenges facing the country.
This came out of a meeting of thematic committees that
presented reports to the full assembly of Polad at State House yesterday.
President Mnangagwa was among other Polad leaders that
received reports from the six thematic committees.
Briefing journalists after presentation of the reports, the
President said: “I am extremely happy. It was very nice, especially the one
that dealt with engagement and the economy, it was very detailed and I think
it’s very useful.”
He said the committees raised some issues on which that
they were not in agreement with the Government. The President promised to review the issues.
Another meeting of leaders of political parties in Polad
has been scheduled for next week where President Mnangagwa will give feedback
on some of the issues raised yesterday.
Yesterday’s meeting was an opportunity for the six
sub-committees to give their reports to the full assembly of POLAD.
“The first one was the economic committee, which hosted the
economic forum last time, which in my view, did a sterling work,” said
President Mnangagwa. “It brought together the major stakeholders in our
economy; industry, commerce, mining, agriculture, Consumer Council (of
Zimbabwe) and labour, were all represented.
“They submitted their reports. There was the governance and
the constitutional legislative committee chaired by Professor Lovemore Madhuku.
They also presented their report which was broken into major two components –
the process of the constitutional amendments and the content of the amendments.
“The third one was the one on international relations,
which is mandated to deal with engagement and re-engagement. They have done a
fantastic job, which I was not aware of.”
The International Relations Committee has met several embassies
representing African countries and those outside the continent.
President Mnangagwa said the Committee has plans to travel
outside Africa for the engagement and re-engagement drive, but the plans were
on hold due to the outbreak of coronavirus in many countries in Asia, Europe
and Africa.
The Covid-19 pandemic has seen many countries announcing
travel restrictions for their citizens to prevent the rapid spread of the
disease, which first broke out in Wuhan, China, in December last year.
The President said the National Building and Peace Building
Committee presented on issues relating to political parties using civil
language so as to avoid inciting people to engage in violence.
The Committee also said the media, which have a role to
play in uniting the nation and spur development, were largely negative and
unpatriotic.
Added President Mnangagwa: “The other one was on
information, on how to disseminate information and the last one was on the
monitoring, which monitors the work of the other five other sub-committees to
see whether these committees have been discharging their mandate.”
Prof Madhuku, who leads the National Constitutional
Assembly party and who chaired the Governance and the Constitutional
Legislative Committee, said they made presentations to President Mnangagwa in
his capacity as the Head of State and Government.
He said President Mnangagwa will take their proposals to
his Government for further deliberations before coming up with feedback at next
week’s meeting.
“Some of the positions he was able to deal with them
directly here because they are often administrative, but the others are more
fundamental like the one that came from our Committee on Constitutional and
Legislative Reforms,” said Prof Madhuku.
“We have presented before him that we are not happy with
the process that has been followed.”
Prof Madhuku said the Government was ready to compromise on
many of the issues.
Dr Thokozani Khupe of MDC-T said: “Our job as the
Re-engagement and International Relations Committee is to engage the
international community so that we build relations that have been soiled in the
past two decades.
“We want to build those relations so that Zimbabwe gets
back to the family of nations. Sanctions have been imposed on Zimbabwe and we
are saying in as much as they say they are targeted; they are not affecting
those who are targeted. They are affecting the ordinary Zimbabweans; 14,6
million people in Zimbabwe are being affected.”
Dr Khupe said it must never be about positions and power,
but about the citizens who want a better life.
Ms Lucia Matibenga, who chaired the National Healing and
Peace Building Committee, said they wanted local politics to be played in an
environment where the members and supporters participate freely without
intimidating each other, despite opposing views.
“We are going to be collaborating with like-minded
organisations that are involved in peace-building,” she said. “The President
was very clear that he supports all the recommendations we have made except the
one we will collaborate with NGOs. Otherwise we received a thumbs up from the
President. Herald
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