Correspondent|MDC-Alliance party officials have realized they have no political leverage in Parliament due to their low numbers of MPs, and are now resorting to desperate means such as paying bribes to facilitate a private meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe has said.
Khupe’s statements come as MDC vice president Morgen Komichi said that the starting point for national dialogue must be a private meeting between his leader Nelson Chamisa and President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“No one in the opposition has enough parliamentarians to give them any leverage. (MDC Alliance) people have attempted to bribe people in high positions to facilitate meetings with President ED Mnangagwa, it’s ironic that the same people accuse us of selling out. They are clearly clandestinely begging for a meeting,” Khupe said in an interview with the State media.
In an interview with the Daily News, Komichi said the two leaders must meet privately at a neutral venue to discuss the way forward.
Asked to comment on accusations by MDC Alliance supporters that she was selling out to ZANU-PF, Khupe responded in Shona saying: “My response is in the Shona adage, ‘Muzivi wenzira yeparuware ndiye mufambi wayo’”
Khupe said after the 2018 elections, all the opposition parties lost all form of political leverage in Parliament.
“If I had something to sell I would worry about those criticisms, unlike 2008 where my party had a leverage in terms of numbers in Parliament there was a basis of alleging or entering in the discourse of selling out,” she said.
“Fortunately, for 2018, no one in the opposition has enough parliamentarians to give them any leverage, so factually there is nothing to sell.”
Khupe accused Nelson Chamisa of trying to impose his views on a dialogue process which he snubbed, saying that in any case dialogue is not a negotiation and no-one must come with preconditions.
“The invite from the President is therefore a step in the right direction. Sincerity of parties can only be judged by how we engage and what the deliveries will be. We agreed at the inaugural meeting on Wednesday that the agenda will be determined by the participants to the dialogue.
“However, the underlining principle is that a dialogue is not negotiation. Therefore, in our opinion there should and will not be preconditions to talking nor we will attempt to define what should not be on the agenda. The dialogue in our opinion should result in changing the lives of the people of Zimbabwe both economically and socially. It should deal with endemic and systematic issue of violence. It should deal with deepening our democracy.
“When we are all in unison its easier to engage and speak with one voice. We know capital is a coward, no investor comes to a country that is divided and polarised. Only a united country with conducive environment for business can prosper,” she said.
Khupe urged Zimbnabweas to embrace the spirrit of dialogue to help unite the nation.
“We only have one Zimbabwe and we can choose to build or destroy. No one owns Zimbabwe and therefore everyone of us has a right to speak what matters, evil prospers when good men and women do nothing.
“Me and my other colleagues’ motivation is simple, it is to allow Zimbabwe to disengage from an election mode and allow Zimbabweans to focus on bread and butter issues.
“For me and the majority of Zimbabweans, the main concern is not about who is in the State House, it is about a job, food on the table, hospitals that function, schools where kids can be taught.”