AS MORE and more people, including churches and leaders of political parties, step up their campaigns for much-needed national dialogue, another government of national unity (GNU) is increasingly being seen as the best route to cure the country’s decades-long myriad challenges.
Speaking to the Daily News On Sunday yesterday, amid growing calls for President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the opposition to bury their hatchet and work together for the good of the country, renowned world politics academic, Stephen Chan, is among the experts who believe that Zimbabwe’s long-mooted national talks should lead to a unity government.
“Dialogue is the one thing that will make the international community start to take Zimbabwe seriously again.
“A government of national unity would result instantly in the lifting of remaining sanctions. It would also act as a signal for investors to contemplate doing business in Zimbabwe on a range of projects.
“What has happened for far too long is a country sounding like a broken record. Dialogue would thus enable new ideas to come to the fore,” Chan told the Daily News On Sunday yesterday.
“But it needs to be actual dialogue, not talking past each other with sound bite slogans and accusations,” he added.
Chan also said if ever another GNU was consummated, the new governing authority needed to prioritise agriculture and industry in order to turn around the country’s economy.
“But this means the portfolios of agriculture and industry have to be placed in the hands of technocrats.
“In short, it shouldn’t be formed by a squabble over which party gets which portfolio, but whether both parties can agree on the best people to occupy these key positions, even if they are not members of any party,” he added.
This comes amid a strong push by many Zimbabweans, including churches and civil society, to have the country’s “political Big Three” — Mnangagwa, opposition leader Douglas Mwonzora and Nelson Chamisa — hold much-needed talks to take the country forward.
Speaking to the Daily News On Sunday’s sister paper, the Daily News, last week, the leader of the Zimbabwe Divine Destiny Network, Bishop Ancelimo Magaya — who is set to lead the latest talks initiative — said the church and civil society were keen to get the nation to engage in discussions around reforms, corruption and social justice.
While Mnangagwa, Mwonzora and Chamisa agree on the need for dialogue, they currently differ on the platform to be used for the talks.
Mnangagwa, and lately Mwonzora, wants the talks held under the auspices of the Political Leaders Dialogue (Polad), while a fearful Chamisa is insisting on bilateral talks between him and the Zanu PF leader.
“Yes, we have started a dialogue initiative. The agenda is for all Zimbabweans to define their destiny. We are still in the early stages of talking to all Zimbabweans.
“There are a number of areas that we are going to tackle together as a nation. As church leaders, we are saying that there has to come a point where a citizen-driven process has to happen.
“It is being started by churches and civil society in general and we are going to engage all Zimbabweans, including political parties,” Magaya told the Daily News last week.
“We are going to discuss issues to do with reforms, corruption, social justice and the economic meltdown of our nation.
“We are interested in the good governance of this nation. We are going to have a launch of this initiative soon,” he added.
All this also comes after Mnangagwa said a fortnight ago that he would scale-up national dialogue programmes, as a way to foster unity for national development.
Addressing the Zanu PF central committee in Harare, ahead of the ruling party’s annual conference that was held in Bindura, Mnangagwa also called upon his supporters to preach the message of peace and unity.
“Under the second republic, we will scale-up programmes that enhance dialogue, social cohesion and national unity.
“We are indeed diverse, but one people, with one national anthem and one national flag.
“Upholding constitutionalism, democracy and the rule of law, as well as the protection and preservation of our rich cultural heritage is sacrosanct,” Mnangagwa said then.
“Similarly, our people deserve the protection of their national pride, identity and dignity.
“I, thus, urge the central committee to always preach love, harmony and hard honest work for the sustainable development of our great country.
“This is the true meaning of independence, freedom and democracy,” Mnangagwa added.
Recently, Mwonzora also said surging reports of both intra- and inter-party political violence in the country made it imperative that politicians come together to engage in necessary dialogue to break the violence and to end the country’s history of hotly-disputed polls.
“The resurgence of violence is very concerning and vindicates our proposition that there must be comprehensive reforms for our electoral process.
“Insisting on elections without reforms is foolish bravery. This doesn’t augur well for our politics and more importantly for our economy.
“The time for dialogue is running out and we need reforms. We are in an election season which means that we need to deal with the issue of violence, hate speech and other reforms through dialogue,” Mwonzora said last month.
Last week, Mwonzora also said he was looking for another meeting with Mnangagwa, in a bid to expedite the country’s much-talked about national dialogue.
Speaking to the Daily News, he said MDC structures had mandated him to urgently meet with Mnangagwa again, to map the way forward for inclusive national talks.
Elaborating on why he wanted to meet the president again, Mwonzora said time was running out for the mooted dialogue ahead of the fast-approaching 2023 national elections — amid fears that holding the polls under the current conditions would lead to them being disputed.
“Our structures want the talks and we are going to convene a national council meeting to discuss their submissions on the proposed dialogue.
“We are going to make an appointment to urgently meet the president (Mnangagwa) to discuss the way forward given what Zanu PF said at its recent conference and the general sentiments of Zimbabweans.
“We are optimistic that we will meet the president soon,” Mwonzora told the Daily News.
The MDC boss met with Mnangagwa and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga in Harare in June, where he tabled his party’s proposals for the planned talks.
Mnangagwa wrote back to Mwonzora in September, agreeing on the need for dialogue — while also urging the opposition leader to join Polad in furtherance of this objective.
“We are encouraged by what Zanu PF said at their conference, which is correct and it’s very important. We always say dialogue is very important, and Zanu PF agrees with that.
“The people of Zimbabwe now need a definite timeline. They want dialogue to be carried out within a certain period and they want dialogue to be done in time,” Mwonzora further told the Daily News.
In 2009, the late former president Robert Mugabe was forced into forming a GNU with the much-loved MDC founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai (also late), after the hotly-disputed 2008 polls.
That short-lived GNU was credited with stabilising the country’s 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.
*Read the full interview with Chan on Pages 8 and 9.
