At the same time, Mwonzora also extended an olive branch to
some of his MDC rivals — including Thokozani Khupe and Elias Mudzuri — who had
challenged his runaway victory after the party’s chaotic extra-ordinary
congress (EOC) last weekend.
The highly-regarded Harare lawyer also said he would reach
out to other opposition groups in the country, in a bid to forge unity among
them. All this comes as constitutional law expert, Lovemore Madhuku, warned
Khupe that she has “absolutely no chance” of reversing Mwonzora’s Sunday
victory.
Addressing the media and MDC members in Harare yesterday,
Mwonzora said it was his wish to help resolve Zimbabwe’s long-standing
political and economic problems by working with Zanu PF.
“For us, the best way is to work with Zanu PF, but not work
for Zanu PF. It is our duty to keep Zanu PF on its toes. It is clear that
Zimbabwe needs a national vision and the party has to play its role,” he said.
Before Sunday’s EOC, both Mwonzora and Khupe had hinted
that the MDC would be amenable to forming a government of national unity (GNU)
with Zanu PF.
“As the MDC, ever since we were formed (in 1999), we have
always been for dialogue. We think that Zimbabwe’s problems can be resolved
through dialogue.
“The problems of this country cannot be resolved through
confrontation, acrimony, rancour and violence. “So, yes, when the time comes,
when the internal process is done and when our consultations are completed, you
will see us calling for dialogue,” Mwonzora told the Daily News last month.
“There is enough historical evidence in this country to
show that most of the problems and big issues are resolved through dialogue.
“The liberation war ended with dialogue. The Gukurahundi in Matabeleland ended
when Zapu and Zanu sealed that Unity Accord.
“In 2008, after Mugabe lost to Morgan Tsvangirai, we
engaged in dialogue to resolve that national question. We will be always for
dialogue, but internal process will have to be done first,” Mwonzora further
said then.
In October, Khupe had also appeared to give a hint about
the mooted talks when she said she was ready to engage in dialogue with
Mnangagwa “to improve the livelihoods of 14,6 million Zimbabweans”.
“If those who think that dialoguing with the president is
selling out, I say I am going to be dialoguing for a better life, then let me
be a sell-out. But I will deliver a better life to everyone at the end of the
day.
“Dialogue energises people to work together and that is the
reason why after every election we must expeditiously get out of election mode
and move forward towards the development agenda.
“As leader of the opposition, I am going to be dialoguing
with the president for a better life for everyone,” Khupe said after she was
sworn in in Parliament. In 2009, the late former president Robert Mugabe was
forced into a GNU with the MDC’s late and much-loved founding father, Morgan
Tsvangirai, after the hotly-disputed 2008 polls.
The short-lived GNU was credited with stabilising the
economy which had imploded in the run-up to those elections. In those polls,
Tsvangirai beat Mugabe hands down. However, the results were withheld for six
long weeks by stunned authorities — amid widespread allegations of ballot
tampering and fraud, which were later confirmed by former bigwigs of the ruling
Zanu PF.
In the ensuing sham presidential run-off, which authorities
claimed was needed to determine the winner, Zanu PF apparatchiks engaged in an
orgy of violence in which hundreds of Tsvangirai’s supporters were killed —
forcing the former prime minister to withdraw from the discredited race
altogether.
Mugabe went on to stand in an embarrassing and
widely-condemned one-man race in which he declared himself the winner.
In addition to affirming that Khupe would be the MDC’s
first vice president, with Mudzuri the second vice president, Mwonzora
confirmed yesterday that Morgen Komichi would be the national chair — while
Paurina Mpariwa would be party secretary-general.
He also pleaded for patience to ‘‘rebuild the entire
opposition structure’’ in the country. Meanwhile, Madhuku warned Khupe
yesterday that she had no chance of overturning Mwonzora’s EOC victory. “Because
the voting was never stopped at law, the results announced by the independent
electoral body are presumed to be valid. They enjoy a presumptive validity,” he
said in a legal opinion to the MDC.
Madhuku also said the presumption of validity meant that
unless the results of the EOC were set aside by a court, Mwonzora was “duly
elected president”.
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