ZANU PF national political commissar, Victor Matemadanda, said that he personally would back the idea of dialogue with the opposition MDC parties outside the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD), if that will help resolve Zimbabwe’s political and economic challenges.
POLAD is a dialogue platform created by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and launched on 17 May 2019 following calls for the need for dialogue with the opposition to find solutions for the country’s problems.
Speaking to Daily News on Sunday, Matemadanda said it was refreshing that the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance and the MDC-T led by Douglas Mwonzora are willing to hold unconditional talks with Mnangagwa. Said Matemadanda:
Any discussions can be done anywhere, but they do not become official unless they are done under an established platform and in our case POLAD.
It doesn’t mean that they (such talks) cannot be done outside POLAD. They can be done, but at the end of the day, an established forum will make them official.
Matemadanda further asserted that Mnangagwa established POLAD out of his benevolence as he had won the 2018 presidential election. He said:
It must be understood that the president came up with POLAD knowing fully well that he had won the elections.
But he felt strongly that other leaders who contested the elections had their own ideas of how to take the country forward, and that those ideas needed to be respected.
MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti was recently quoted by a daily publication saying that his party was willing to talk with ZANU PF without any pre-conditions.