News / National
'Mnangagwa must engage Chamisa'
07 Dec 2018 at 06:34hrs | Views
ECONOMIC experts yesterday called for a multi-stakeholder dialogue involving business, political parties, and citizens to resolve the country's worsening economic and political crises.
Speaking at an AMH Conversations series themed Unpacking the Fuel Crisis, Africa Development Strategy executive director Gift Mugano said the mounting economic and political challenges could only be resolved through national dialogue.
"We need the right environment for investment to come here. We need a political solution. [Emmerson] Mnangagwa is the President of this country, but he can't ignore [MDC leader Nelson] Chamisa. He [Chamisa] needs to also be a statesman and he can't be seen communicating like he does not care," Mugano said.
A petition by Chamisa challenging the July 30 presidential election results was thrown out by the Constitutional Court, but the opposition party still refuses to recognise Mnangagwa's victory.
"We need a collective political decision if it means they have to give each other concessions so that we live peacefully, let's do that. We need a platform where business, labour, government and citizens can speak and sign a social contract based on credible, factual information and come to reality with facts of the economy," he said
Mugano added that in a good political environment, the nation could access lines of credit through locally-based multinational; however, a highly polarised political environment would chase away credit facilities.
"Our political environment is very toxic, you hear the war veterans saying we want a change in the age limit (of presidential candidates), that is not going to help us solve the problems. We need to have a national consensus, if it means President Mnangagwa has to sit down with Nelson Chamisa and have a collective position.
"We can't ignore the political direction that we don't want to talk to MDC, we don't want to talk to Zanu-PF. People must be mature now and say we need to talk as one nation, as Zimbabweans," Mugano said.
This comes as war veterans are plotting to force the ruling Zanu-PF party to make a constitutional amendment that will raise the presidential age limit from 40 to 52 years, effectively blocking Chamisa (40) from challenging Mnangagwa (75) in 2023.
Speaking at an AMH Conversations series themed Unpacking the Fuel Crisis, Africa Development Strategy executive director Gift Mugano said the mounting economic and political challenges could only be resolved through national dialogue.
"We need the right environment for investment to come here. We need a political solution. [Emmerson] Mnangagwa is the President of this country, but he can't ignore [MDC leader Nelson] Chamisa. He [Chamisa] needs to also be a statesman and he can't be seen communicating like he does not care," Mugano said.
A petition by Chamisa challenging the July 30 presidential election results was thrown out by the Constitutional Court, but the opposition party still refuses to recognise Mnangagwa's victory.
"We need a collective political decision if it means they have to give each other concessions so that we live peacefully, let's do that. We need a platform where business, labour, government and citizens can speak and sign a social contract based on credible, factual information and come to reality with facts of the economy," he said
Mugano added that in a good political environment, the nation could access lines of credit through locally-based multinational; however, a highly polarised political environment would chase away credit facilities.
"Our political environment is very toxic, you hear the war veterans saying we want a change in the age limit (of presidential candidates), that is not going to help us solve the problems. We need to have a national consensus, if it means President Mnangagwa has to sit down with Nelson Chamisa and have a collective position.
"We can't ignore the political direction that we don't want to talk to MDC, we don't want to talk to Zanu-PF. People must be mature now and say we need to talk as one nation, as Zimbabweans," Mugano said.
This comes as war veterans are plotting to force the ruling Zanu-PF party to make a constitutional amendment that will raise the presidential age limit from 40 to 52 years, effectively blocking Chamisa (40) from challenging Mnangagwa (75) in 2023.
Source - newsday
