AN all-political parties' indaba called by the Zimbabwe
Council of Churches (ZCC) to end the current stalemate and possibly forestall
antigovernment protests scheduled for July 31 hit a brick wall yesterday after
the country's two major parties Zanu-PF and MDC Alliance snubbed the event.
The MDC Alliance argued that it could not be involved in a
dialogue with a rival faction led by Thokozani Khupe who they accuse of
fronting the interests of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his Zanu-PF party.
ZCC secretary-general Kenneth Mtata, who called for the
dialogue to enable leaders of the main political parties to find common ground,
said 17 parties attended the dialogue, but did not say if MDC Alliance and
Zanu-PF attended.
Khupe's MDC-T faction was represented by Paurina Mpariwa,
an MDC Alliance proportional representation MP, who recently defected to the
Khupe camp.
Zanu-PF information director Tafadzwa Mugwadi said his
party was not part of the dialogue.
"To the best of my knowledge, we are not part of that.
I will check, but we were not part of it," Mugwadi said.
MDC Alliance deputy spokesperson Clifford Hlatshwayo also
confirmed that his party did not attend the meeting.
"We did not attend. The MDC Alliance, however, supports
all efforts that will culminate in a broader front to resolve the current
political and economic crises facing the country," he said.
The party has endorsed the July 31 march being organised by
Zimbabweans to protest against corruption and failure by Mnangagwa's
administration to address the current crises.
However, a senior MDC Alliance official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said they snubbed the meeting in protest over the
invitation of the "rebels".
"We told the conveners that we will not be part of
that meeting. They invited the Khupe party and the issue is we can't be
equalised with the renegades who are stealing our party. We would rather
negotiate with Mnangagwa rather than his conduits," the senior MDC
Alliance official said.
"We cannot be seen to be negotiating with people who
are being used by Zanu-PF to push an anti-people agenda by destroying the
people's party."
Mtata said some of the parties that took part at the
Kentucky Hotel meeting were organisers of the July 31 protests, Transform
Zimbabwe led by Jacob Ngarivhume, Build Zimbabwe and Mthwakazi Republic Party.
"Among the challenges raised by the participants were
first the need to realise the nation is in an emergency situation," Mtata
said in a statement late last night.
Concerns were raised on the way government was dealing with
the current health crisis and failing to address issues raised by striking
nurses and doctors.
The participants also raised concern over the alleged abuse
of COVID-19 funds and the deteriorating human rights situation in the country
and called for a national broad-based dialogue to address the crisis, he added.
MDC-T deputy spokesperson Khalipani Phugeni confirmed that
their party was represented at the meeting, adding that he was yet to get
details of what transpired.
"Yes, we attended the meeting. Our party was
represented by Honourable Mpariwa and a technical person from ourparty,"
he said.
Khupe is opposed to the July 31 protests. Her faction,
MDC-T, was supposed to hold its extraordinary congress on the same day, but
that now looks unlikely because of COVID-19 and "security issues".
"We are worried and suspicious because we have
intelligence that there are credible attempts to disrupt our congress and we
found it to be very suspicious that after we announce our date and then there
is this demonstration," Phugeni said. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment