Chamisa should convene his own dialogue with other parties outside POLAD

Chamisa should convene his own dialogue with other parties outside POLAD

By Pavel Mwaoseni

Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has been urged to convene its own dialogue with other political parties in the country outside the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) forum.

This comes as opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has dug in since 2018 that he will not join the POLAD platform, preferring to have an exclusive dialogue with President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

POLAD is a window that was opened by President Mnangagwa in 2019 to reportedly hear the voices of other political parties, especially those that contested in the 2018 general elections.

Part of the discussions in POLAD includes reviewing the political, economic, and social situation in the country with a view to finding lasting solutions for the country.

Dialogue has been identified by many political commentators and civic society organisations as the only way out of the current challenges in Zimbabwe.

Commenting on the dialogue issue, New Patriotic Front (NPF) leader Tendai Peter Munyanduri said while CCC has reservations about joining POLAD, it should also create its own version of POLAD with parties that rejected the forum.

‘’CCC should have dialogue even outside POLAD because an all-stakeholder dialogue is healthy whilst at the same time we also urge CCC to be flexible and even accept dialogue within the POLAD window.

‘’We feel that CCC also needs to hear the views of other political parties. It can convene its own dialogue platform with smaller political parties outside POLAD if they do not want dialogue within POLAD,’’ he said.

Only dialogue can solve rigging claims

The NPF leader added that 2023 elections are fast approaching and only dialogue can solve rigging claims. He said there are many stakeholders that can be engaged.

‘’…2023 general elections are fast approaching and there will be rigging allegations, verbal wars, and bruising legal battles again if the dialogue is not prioritized to the detriment of the national brand internationally, citizens morale, and national motivation.

“We may have religious, political, and educational differences, but we must not forget that all black Zimbabweans we are related through our common history, culture, and blood descendancy.

‘’We need to share the same national vision and agree on the leadership selection methodology elections, theocracy, monarchy, military or meritocratic idealism we need to discuss and debate freely on the advantages and disadvantages of each methodology democracy may turn out not to be the best for our situation,” Munyanduri said.