ED forcing us to dialogue: Chamisa

OPPOSITION MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of abusing State institutions to push his party into dialogue, pleading with Sadc and the international community to stand in solidarity with the “oppressed people of Zimbabwe”.

Chamisa said Mnangagwa was using the courts, Parliament, the army and police to silence and decimate the MDC Alliance by sponsoring some elements within the opposition movement as a way of pushing for a one-party State.

“Sadc must always seek solidarity with oppressed citizens,” he said.

“No single country problem is that country’s problem alone. A sneezing Zimbabwe will make the entire region catch a cold. A Zimbabwean problem, a Zambian problem, a Malawian problem ceases to be a single country’s problem,” he said.

“Institutions of the State like the courts, the army, independent commissions must be professional and independent to ensure economic prosperity and political stability.

“We are where we are because of disputed elections. Two years on, we have not resolved political questions.”

On the fights among opposition political parties that have seen MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe recalling his 13 legislators, Chamisa in an interview with eNCA, a South African television station, said: “What is clear is that MPs from the MDC Alliance have not been fired or recalled from Parliament by MDC-T.

“They have been recalled by Zanu PF, by Mnangagwa together with the Speaker of Parliament (Advocate Jacob Mudenda) conniving to entrench authoritarianism, a one-party State and trying to reverse the will of the people in 2018, trying to take away what they had taken away when they rigged the election.”

He added: “Khupe got 45 000 in terms of votes. We participated and got 2,6 million and what Mnangagwa is trying to do is to conflate the two, so that he confuses it, and forces us to be part of what he wants through the Political Actors Dialogue.

“So we have said, we have nothing to do with that, what we want is clear dialogue that will address the fundamental issues of the day.”

Chamisa said the MDC Alliance and the MDC-T were two distinct political parties that could not be joined, that could not be confused and belong separately and participated in elections separately.

Last week, Zanu PF acting spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said the MDC Alliance must stop accusing the ruling party of meddling in opposition “murky” affairs, saying they should, instead, blame themselves and the late former founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Congratulating newly-elected Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, Chamisa said the neighbouring country now had a God-fearing leader, adding that Zimbabwe’s State apparatus must learn better and stand with the will of the people.

“Malawi has a God-fearing man. He is a Godly man, a caring man and that makes a difference. When you fear God, you care for his people,” he said.