President reaches out to opposition

PRESIDENT-ELECT Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa has committed to upholding peace and working with churches to promote nation-building to refocus the national agenda.

Yesterday, he once again reached out to opposition political parties, saying political actors “should embrace each other and move forward”. Cde Mnangagwa made the remarks at a prayer meeting hosted by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches to encourage political leaders to bring closure to the election season and foster national cohesion.

“I appeal to my Presidential (election) colleagues ... that every five years there is a day that the people of Zimbabwe decide who to give a mandate to run the country. After that is over, we all, in my view, should embrace each other and move forward.

“Again, when the other day comes after five years, we have the opportunity to repeat the same and say who do you want to carry the mantle of the State for the next five years. But through all this, peace, peace, unity and love should be the flagship of Zimbabwe. That way, as a nation, there is no limit as to how much we can develop our country and improve our lives.”

President Mnangagwa said he had expected other Presidential candidates to attend the prayer meeting as it would have been an opportunity to chart the way forward in harmony.

“I am grateful that the Zimbabwe Council of Churches found it proper, necessary, useful and important that we have this breakfast prayer. The composition of this breakfast prayer, according to my invitation, was that all contestants of just-ended harmonised elections would be present. I have not met some of my colleagues, so I thought I would meet them here and they would meet me also here and it would have been an extremely nice opportunity for the 23 of us to hug and proceed.”

MDC-Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, a pastor, skipped the prayer meeting and instead addressed a media conference during which he threatened street protests. President Mnangagwa said the State could only function efficiently in a peaceful environment.

“As the State, our role in the new dispensation is to say what programmes to introduce; what economic and social programmes should we introduce so that the life of our people improves? Some families and communities are far much better than other families and communities in Zimbabwe, but we still have families that need assistance who cannot on themselves improve their lives. The State has a role to do that, and that can only be done in a peaceful Zimbabwe, in an environment where peace prevails.”

The church, he said, was pivotal to nation-building. While hailing the peaceful environment that characterised

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