Latest News Editor's Choice


News / National

Chinamasa warns opposition

by Staff reporter
21 Nov 2020 at 22:17hrs | Views
ZANU-PF says political parties that are shunning President Emmerson Mnangagwa's dialogue overtures and preferring violent confrontations will be dealt with by the law.

This comes as MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has constantly rejected Mnangagwa's invitation to join the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad) after the hotly-contested 2018 elections. While Chamisa has declined to join Polad, a number of fringe opposition parties that contested the 2018 presidential race have accepted the offer.

Speaking at Zanu-PF's weekly press briefing yesterday, party acting-spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said Mnangagwa is open to dialogue and every political party in Zimbabwe must support the initiative.

"The creation of Polad demonstrates the exceptional statesmanship of President Mnangagwa to ensure that the politics of hatred is a thing of the past. "Those who reject dialogue and opt for violence will continue being punished by the law until the people finish them off come 2023 elections," Chinamasa said.

Meanwhile, Chinamasa reiterated the ruling party's stance on trying to mend relations with the administration of incoming United States (US) President Joe Biden.

"The re-engagement exercise is meant to reconnect and mend relations as well as consolidating our relations with our all-weather friends like China, Russia and India.

"The party urges the government to continue reengagement with the new US leadership to remove sanctions against Zimbabwe and the process of re-engagement should never be mistaken for appeasement of former colonial
masters.

"The Zanu-PF Party is happy with the progress thus far, regarding to re-engagement as seen by removal of institutions like CBZ and IDBZ from sanctions," the former Treasury chief said.

Chinamasa said significant progress has been made in amending draconian laws which was one of the conditions the West placed on Harare if sanctions were to be lifted.

"There has been a resounding progress in reforms as seen by repealing of laws like Posa (Public Order and Security Act) and even electoral freedoms that have seen participation of many presidential candidates in the 2018 elections.

"Zanu-PF is glad that these new reforms are aimed at promoting democracy in the nation and should not be misconstrued for an appeasement act in the re-engagement process," he said

Chinamasa also said Mnangagwa was serious in tackling corruption. "On the issue of the criminals who were surrounding the then President Robert Mugabe, the law has been applied and justice will prevail.

"The president came into office with a zero-tolerance stance to corruption and processes by government institutions like the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zaac) and ZRP are a constitutional mandate.

"It should be known that President Mnangagwa had given a window period for some who had externalised funds," he said.

Source - dailynews