By A Correspondent- Analysts who spoke to a local publication said President Mnangagwa’s dialogue platform a waste of time and resources if it does not involve Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the largest opposition party.

Political analyst Alexander Rusero also described Polad as a charade that Mnangagwa created.

“You can’t sit around with a bunch of electoral losers and pretend to be talking and in the process, leave out your main rival,” Rusero said.

“For starters, it is Mnangagwa who is setting the pace, agenda and at times venue to conduct the ‘dialogue’ meetings. That must not be the case. Real dialogue with real players will come, only after Zimbabwe has reached the mutually hurting stalemate like what happened in 2008.”

United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean lawyer and political analyst Alex Magaisa said attempts to trivialise Chamisa’s consent to dialogue were futile.

“They have already tried it with the Political Actors’ Dialogue. Without the biggest opposition leader, Polad was a sham from the beginning,” Magaisa wrote on his blog on Saturday.

“It has since proved to be no more than a group of enablers desperate to align with Mnangagwa and using attacks on Chamisa and the MDC Alliance to buy their way onto the gravy train.

Polad was presented as an inclusive dialogue, but for Mnangagwa, it is just a platform to trivialise and dilute his main rival, Chamisa.”

He added that Chamisa would lose credibility among his party’s followers if he joins Polad, adding even if they gave it a new name, it would still be foul.

-Newsday