Tsvangirai's call for national policy convergence snubbed

Calls by the opposition MDC-T for a national policy convergence conference for parties outside government has been rebuffed and described as a 'talk shop' that will not bring solutions to citizens' problems.

Speaking during a presentation titled: What does the Sadc chairmanship mean for Zimbabwe, challenges and opportunities? hosted by the Media Centre, MDC-T faction  spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora extended an invitation to all opposition forces in Zimbabwe, particularly those represented at the discussion to join his party for a convergence conference in order to craft policies before "we assume power in 2018".

"We are confident we will win the election in 2018 and form the next government," Mwonzora said, to roaring laughter from the audience.

"The problems that we are facing in Zimbabwe do not affect those in a political party alone, they affect all of us. But we now need to answer the ‘what' rather than the ‘who' is wrong, this is a noble idea where we can come up with policies that can then be used for developing the country by the party that takes power after the elections".

He cited joblessness, economic stagnation, corruption and capital flight that he said needed clear policy directions to tackle.

However, his proposals were quickly shot down by emerging opposition NCA spokesperson, Murdock Chivasa, who warned that the MDC-T led by Morgan Tsvangirai had sold out the struggle before, and there was a chance that it would repeat the same again.

"Most of the people in the MDC-T are former members of the NCA, including its leader Morgan Tsvangirai who was the first chairperson while Mwonzora was its spokesperson and later deputy chairperson. They lobbied for a people driven constitution before they hijacked the process after joining Zanu PF in government. Once beaten twice shy, we will not be part of the convergence," said Chivasa.

African Democratic Party president Marcellina Chikasha said her party would only join the MDC-T if it came up with practical solutions to the country's problems.

"We will join you if you call for a programme to pick up rubbish from the streets. That is practical. Educated as we are, Zimbabweans are renowned for crafting well named proposals but always come short at implementation. Noble as it might sound, this idea must not be like the same  talk shows; this idea is not  quiet concrete  enough," said Chikasha,  who kept on shaking her head on the podium as a way to show disapproval.

However, Mwonzora tried in vain to allay their fears.

"Other political parties always think that the MDC-T is out to cheat them but we should move away from fighting characters, let's not focus on who is the problem but on what is the problem, what we are doing now is finding solutions so that when we assume power in 2018, we won't spend time searching for solutions," added Mwonzora.

Tsvangirai's MDC-T has, in the last few weeks, also been trying to sell "the big tent" to officials who ditched the veteran trade unionists, citing dictatorship and the tendency to resort to violence to resolve internal differences.

Like the national convergence, the "big tent mentality" was described by erstwhile secretary general Tendai Biti as full of "hyenas and other unsavory creatures and leaking", found no takers.

However, the three political parties found common ground when they agreed that the assumption of chairship of Sadc by President Robert Mugabe last month was not an achievement as it was done on rotational basis, hence was no cause for celebration.