'Coalition talks a knee-jerk reaction'

ONGOING coalition talks among opposition forces in Zimbabwe are premised on wrong assumptions and may not succeed, former Cabinet minister and Alliance for National Salvation (ANSA) party leader Moses Mzila Ndlovu has said.

Mzila-Ndlovu told a public meeting organised by the pressure group, Ibhetshu LikaZulu, in Bulawayo, last week that the hype around a coalition were an indication opposition parties were panicking.

"We want to do things at the spur of the moment because of the panic mode we are in now. The coalition's primary goal is to remove [President Robert] Mugabe and that leaves most critical issues unattended.

"Removing Mugabe is not enough. When getting into a coalition, you need to understand what it is that will bind you. There is missing glue that makes the current coalition stick together and that poses potential dissenting voices in the near future," Mzila-Ndlovu said.

He said the proposed coalition needs to be built with an understanding of the goals of the liberation struggle.

"People risked their lives because they desired to be free, but come 1980 we never saw freedom as Zanu-PF started ill-treating people.
[Now] 36 years later we have not known freedom. We fought for freedom of speech and freedom after speech. Is the coalition going to restore that?

"We cannot guarantee that we are free from State agents, we do not have freedom of association, and we are not free from the hunger and we do not have universal freedoms that people should be enjoying," the former National Healing minister said.

Mzila-Ndlovu said the coalition needs to address regional issues affecting Matabeleland.

"This is around issues of Gukurahundi, political freedom and restoration of industry, revival of hospitals and looting of resources that have contributed to the deteriorating state of the economy, among many other factors," he said.

He added that issues of devolution of power and cultural imperialism needed attention.

MDC-T vice-president Thokozani Khupe has also been on record arguing the opposition party does not need a coalition in the Matabeleland provinces.

Mzila-Ndlovu said there were also issues of trust around those that left Zanu-PF, but had not openly accounted for what they did when they were in the ruling party.