Europe pushes for Mnangagwa, Chamisa talks

Published: 11 October 2019
THE European Union (EU) is ramping up pres- sure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to hold much-needed talks with opposition leader Nelson Chamisa. This comes as Mnangagwa is battling to put back on track his re-engagement efforts with western powers, following growing concerns about human rights violations in the country, which are blamed on the government.

In the meantime, it has also emerged that the EU is scheduled to hold further talks with the government later this month as part of its efforts to re-establish warm relations between Harare  and Brussels following decades of frosty relations during the ten- ure of the late former president Robert Mugabe.

Zanu-PF secretary for administration, Obert Mpofu, confirmed to the Daily News yesterday that EU ambassador to Zimbabwe, Timo Olkkonen, had paid a visit to the ruling party's headquarters on Tuesday, to push for dialogue between the coun- try's two major political parties.

"We had a meeting with the EU ambassador and a repre- sentative from the Zimbabwe Institute. The meeting was very cordial, but tense. The meeting was initiated by the EU ambas- sador.

"They were engaging us on issues to do with dialogue Europe pushes for ED, Chamisa talks everyone unconditionally," he said further.

Olkkonen was not immediately available for a comment yesterday.

This comes as there are growing calls including from the church for the president and Chamisa to bury their differences in a bid to extricate the country from its deepening political and economic crises.

Mnangagwa has been at log- gerheads with Chamisa since last year's hotly-disputed elections, which the youthful opposition leader allege were rigged in favour of the Zanu-PF leader.

But Mnangagwa's victory was later upheld by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that Chamisa had failed to provide evidence that he had won the polls. between Zanu-PF and the MDC. They said President Emmerson Mnangagwa should speak with Chamisa to end the current crisis and we told them that dialogue to discuss the national question had already been initiated by the president under Polad (the Political Actors Dialogue) which invited all Zimbabweans to come on the table," he said.

Chamisa has so far refused to join the Mnangagwa-initiated Polad, insisting on one-on-one meetings.

The youthful opposition leader has been brawling with Mnangagwa ever since the July 30, 2018 watershed elections, which he said were manipulated in favour of the 77-year-old Zanu-PF leader. Since then, Chamisa has refused to accept Mnangagwa's leadership of the country. As a result, Mpofu told the Daily News that it would be difficult to hold talks with Chamisa, unless the MDC boss accepted Mnangagwa as the legitimate leader of the country.

"They (EU) seem to be of the opinion that negotiations were supposed to be between the MDC and Mnangagwa, but our position is clear ... Polad was initiated by our president and was welcomed by everyone. Now the MDC is pushing for bilateral talks.

"The challenge is that while the MDC is pushing for bilateral talks, they are on the other hand disputing our president's legitimacy. Their behaviour is a slap in the face of genuine dialogue.

"If they are genuine, they should be magnanimous ...
and should behave in a spirit of nationalism, and in the interest of unity of our people. So, we threw the ball back into the court of the EU to talk to the MDC," Mpofu said.

"The EU seems determined to see this initiative move forward. We pointed out that the problem is not Zanu-PF.

"Besides we have the mandate to run the country until 2023. But be that as it may, the president is always willing to engage everyone unconditionally," he said further.

Olkkonen was not immediately available for a comment yesterday.

This comes as there are growing calls including from the church for the president and Chamisa to bury their differences in a bid to extricate the country from its deepening political and economic crises.

Mnangagwa has been at log- gerheads with Chamisa since last year's hotly-disputed elections, which the youthful opposition leader allege were rigged in favour of the Zanu-PF leader.

But Mnangagwa's victory was later upheld by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that Chamisa had failed to provide evidence that he had won the polls.
- dailynews
Tags: Mnangagwa, Chamisa,

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