We are not part of the dialogue: Busha

By Daniel Chigundu

FreeZim Congress president Joseph Busha says his political party is not part of the on-going national dialogue being spearheaded by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Busha said the Mnangagwa led dialogue is a useless process which will not take the country anywhere as it is mainly composed of people who are only looking at being co-opted into positions.

The FreeZim Congress leader told the media that he wrote to President Mnangagwa proposing a bilateral dialogue to share ideas on Zimbabwe but he refused.

“Let me tell you I wrote to the President, I was supposed to bring you a copy of the letter and I will bring it to you to say let’s meet and have a shared vision about the country, he refused, so my position is that he is scared of ideas, he is a coward from a discussion perspective.

“Now he wants to group a group of people so that he can say I have engaged them, I have listened to them and this is what they said, why is he refusing to have a bilateral discussion between two people.

“I said lets meet the two of us and really share what is your plan, this is my plan, as a country we must have a national interest, we must have a strategy and believe it doesn’t matter who is in power were we say this is what Zimbabweans want for them and the country,” he said.

Busha becomes the second opposition party leader who has written to President Mnangagwa proposing a meeting; the other is MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa but both their requests appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

According to the Freezim Congress president, the inter-party dialogue is a useless process and is glad that even Chamisa also refused to participate because the dialogue does not take Zimbabwe anywhere.

“So we won’t participate as FreeZim Congress, we are not part of the inter-party dialogue it’s a useless exercise its any exercise of people who are looking for self-interests rather than anything else for Zimbabwe,” he said.

Dialogue has been pointed as the only way out of the current situation in Zimbabwe but efforts towards that direction are being hampered by differences between the parties.

Zanu PF and MDC Alliance have put conditions they want to be met before they can engage with others but none of them is willing to compromise.

Others want a limited number of participants to the dialogue while others are of the view that everyone should be involved.

Former Deputy Prime Minister in the Inclusive Government Arthur Mutambara a few weeks ago told delegates a workshop organised by SIVIO that only Zanu PF and MDC-Alliance should hold the talks and they can be joined by CSOs and business.