Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Some MDC-T leaders are unhappy with the party’s president Douglas Mwonzora after he recently met with President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House without informing them.
Mnangagwa and Mwonzora on Friday held their first formal meeting since the Manicaland senator became the government’s preferred leader of the opposition amid murmurs of disapproval from his party.
Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga also attended the meeting that was curiously not covered by the state-controlled media.
Mwonzora yesterday told The Standard that he had gone to State House to pay a courtesy call on Mnangagwa. He said:
There were two things. The thing was that I went to pay a courtesy call as leader of the opposition in Parliament to the president and head of state.
The second one was to deliver the MDC’s concrete proposals for dialogue as I was instructed by the congress.
The meeting was cordial and respectful.
The president, who was accompanied by the vice-president undertook to reply to our proposals after which we would have formal discussions on the matter.
Mwonzora, however, refused to disclose the MDC-T’s proposals, saying he was waiting for Mnangagwa’s response.
A senior MDC-T official accused Mwonzora of going to State House clandestinely as the matter was never discussed during the party’s recent meetings.
Some POLAD members are also unhappy that Mnangagwa is seemingly going back on his word not to hold any talks outside the controversial POLAD platform.
POLAD is a platform where Mnangagwa engages leaders of fringe political parties that took part in the 2018 presidential elections, including MDC-T.
Mwonzora said he would not take part in POLAD meetings as he preferred broader dialogue to resolve Zimbabwe’s multiple political and economic problems.
