President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba revealed that his principal is open to negotiating with MDC president Nelson Chamisa.
He, however, insists that any kind of dialogue between the two will happen only if Chamisa accept that Mnangagwa is the legitimately elected President of Zimbabwe. In an interview with the Daily News Charamba said
You may also want to know, and I am making this disclosure for the first time, that way before we went for elections — at the height of the election campaigns, and even after the elections — there were lots of back channel communications between Zanu PF and MDC. Some of the players are pretending to be very radical today but we know better and the MDC Alliance knows what’s on offer.
There was an extraordinary amount of goodwill which they fluffed. One hopes that goodwill still subsists … but anyway, now that they have given that indication, let’s wait for the commission to make its recommendations and then move forward and see how this action pans out. But a key pre-condition is that there must be a recognition of ED as the winner of the 2018 elections … there are no two ways about that.
It was a forward looking agreement, but it appears that the MDC leader was interred with his vision that he had for this country… His youthful successor (Chamisa) did not realise that there were certain things that had been struck by the two leaders, which would have carried this nation forward, and forward in amity.
What you are looking at is some takeover without a handover (MDC succession). Chamisa did not realise that there was prior dialogue to the structure which he has no assumed leadership of, a dialogue that went ahead of the party, a dialogue that was national in outlook.
He (Chamisa) jettisoned it. He fouled it. But I would still say better late than never, now that I am seeing he is coming round.
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