By- Top MDC-T leaders Douglas Mwonzora and the party’s chairperson Morgen Komichi have clashed over how to approach the ruling Zanu PF.

The clash comes after Komichi has said the government only needs confrontation, not dialogue, for it to respond to address national issues.

This contradicts Mwonzora’s position of having a dialogue with Zanu PF to solve the prevailing crises.

Speaking on Alpha Media Holdings’ Heart and Soul television (HStv) ‘s current affairs programme at the weekend, Komichi said President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government had shown a lack of desire to engage in meaningful dialogue with opposition party leaders. 

Said Komichi:

As we speak right now the government doesn’t want anything to do with dialoguing. People have talked about dialogue and the government has not been forthcoming, the government simply needs confrontation, the opposition people should just stand up and demand what the government should do. The moment you start putting issues of dialogue, the government laughs at you, because like now how can we, as Zimbabweans, allow the government to go for 10 years without implementing important parts of our Constitution like devolution?

After he was voted the MDC-T president in 2020, Mwonzora met Mnangagwa at State House and gave him a dialogue proposal document, which suggested that by-elections must be put on hold in order to promote talks outside the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) platform. 

Mnangagwa ignored the proposal insisting that talks will only take place within the POLAD platform he initiated in 2019 for the 2018 presidential candidates to dialogue in an endeavour to address the socio-economic and political crises bedevilling Zimbabwe. 

Nelson Chamisa who now leads the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) refused to join POLAD saying it was meant to legitimise Mnangagwa’s rule.