FORMER Cabinet minister and senior opposition official Samuel Sipepa Nkomo has urged the warring MDC factions led by Douglas Mwonzora and Nelson Chamisa to settle their differences first before engaging President Emmerson Mnangagwa in national dialogue.
This comes at a time when there have been renewed calls by
long-suffering Zimbabweans and the Church for the opposition to engage in talks
with Mnangagwa and the ruling party to end Zimbabwe’s economic and political
woes.
It also comes at a time when Mwonzora and Chamisa have both
warmed up to the idea of engaging Mnangagwa.
However, Mnangagwa has maintained the stance that any
engagements will have to be conducted under the auspices of the Political
Actors Dialogue (Polad), a notion Chamisa has scoffed at.
At the same times, Mwonzora and Chamisa are embroiled in a
vicious battle to control the MDC with the former being recognised as the
bonafide leader of the country’s biggest opposition party.
Nkomo, a former MDC stalwart, who was once in the party’s
advisory council during the late leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s tenure, said
failure to engage in talks between the two warring factions would only spell
doom for them come the 2023 watershed elections.
“The politics in the MDC led by Chamisa and the one by
Mwonzora are currently an unfortunate spectacle.
“The MDC we used to know which at our time had more MPs
than Zanu PF, is no more. I believe in the current situation they (MDCs) cannot
even achieve a third of that in any election,” Nkomo told Daily News
yesterday.
“I do not believe that in 2023, the MDCs have got a chance.
Pride, ego and just wanting to be there, will not help the MDC.
“The leaders, some of them, are behaving like a cult. It’s
about me, myself and I and not about the people of Zimbabwe who have suffered
for long,” he added.
Nkomo said while dialogue was the way to go, it was wrong
for Chamisa and Mwonzora to engage Mnangagwa before resolving their
differences. “Both MDCs I don’t know
what miracle can happen to lock down the two in one room and go away with the
keys and tell them to resolve their issues.
“They want talks with Mnangagwa, they are wrong. Leave
Mnangagwa alone, what they want are talks with themselves first,” he
added.
The former Lobengula legislator said unless unity in the
two MDCs is achieved, there will be no formidable opponent to challenge a
rejuvenated Zanu PF in polls. Daily News
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