CSOs press for ED, Chamisa talks

By The Standard and Newsday | Oct. 30, 2021 | 2 Min read

The civic groups under Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiCZ) made the call after United Nations special rapporteur Alena Douhan emphasized in her preliminary report the need for dialogue at the close of her 10-day mission to the country.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

CIVIC society organisations (CSOs) yesterday repeated calls for an all-inclusive dialogue facilitated by the Sadc bloc. They also called on President Emmerson Mnangagwa to stop the weaponisation of the law and State-sponsored rights violations.

Douhan was probing the impact of sanctions imposed by the West on Zimbabwe.

Sadc chairperson Lazarus Chakwera on Monday issued a statement also calling for a stakeholders’ dialogue.

CiCZ spokesperson Marvelous Khumalo said Zanu PF must face reality, stop politicking about the sanctions and agree to an all-inclusive dialogue to lift the country out of the current political, socio-economic mess.

“As the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, we reiterate that an all-inclusive dialogue process facilitated by Sadc is critical in unlocking the Zimbabwean crisis and facilitating re-engagement with the international community,” Khumalo said in a statement.

“The current clampdown on the opposition which has resulted in attempts to assassinate opposition leader Nelson Chamisa can only serve to confirm the regime’s bad human rights record and further alienate the country from the league of nations.

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“We implore the ruling party to desist from authoritarian tendencies and embrace political tolerance and call for a genuine and all-inclusive dialogue.”

Mnangagwa has said he would only dialogue with Chamisa under the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad), a platform where he meets the 2018 losing presidential candidates. Chamisa has dismissed Polad as a bogus platform.

Zimbabwe’s history shows that dialogue has been effective in dealing with political contestations in the country.

The 1987 Unity Accord saw Zanu PF and PF-Zapu joining hands to end the Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland and Midlands in the early 1980s.

In 2008, talks between the opposition MDCs and Zanu PF resulted in the formation of a unity government that helped stem the country’s worst economic crisis characterised by world record-breaking inflation figures.