NATIONAL Patriotic Front and ex-President Robert Mugabe\u2019s spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire has urged the direct involvement of the country\u2019s military in proposed national dialogue processes widely believed to be the panacea to the country\u2019s myriad problems.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe\u2019s military has been heavily embedded with Zanu PF politics and has, on many occasions been blamed for fixing the outcome of the country\u2019s poll processes in the ruling party\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
Mawarire was speaking at a dialogue meeting organised by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches in Harare earlier this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a mistake in 2008 that we allowed political parties to dialogue on their own. We even left out the army,\u201d Mawarire said of a process that saw arch-rivals, Mugabe and the now late Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC, form the now defunct government of national unity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that what we need now is an inclusive dialogue process that includes the citizenry, that includes civil society and that includes the army because the problem in this country is the army.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe army is the one that moved in and took over Zanu PF\u2026the so-called \u2018command element\u2019 of the army moved in and have signed minutes that \u2018we are moving in because we have realised that Zanu PF is going to lose the elections. So we are going to take over Zanu PF from Mugabe and those that support him\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the army imposed someone (President Emmerson Mnangagwa) who had been chased away from Zanu PF, imposed him as the president and that person then called for an illegitimate election.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect (Army Commander) General Valerio Sibanda to be among us here. I expect General Chiwenga in his full military gear, do not be fooled by hearing that he is the VP. No, he is a soldier, we expect (Foreign Affairs Minister) Sibusiso Moyo to be here in his full military gear and we begin to actually hear their concerns, why they moved to take over Zanu PF, why they moved to take over government.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the Chiwenga led army\u2019s Operation Restore Legacy that toppled Mugabe in dramatic fashion November 2017.<\/p>\n
Mawarire, a passionate opponent to the \u2018New Dispensation\u2019, was on a panel that had former Cabinet Minister Paul Mangwana of Zanu PF, opposition MDC secretary for elections Jacob Mafume and Youth Assembly leader Obey Sithole.<\/p>\n
MDC President Nelson Chamisa has refused to join Mnangagwa at a Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) called for by the Zanu PF leader.<\/p>\n
Chamisa does not recognise Mnangagwa\u2019s presidency and has argued that the veteran politician is part of the problems affecting the country, hence cannot call for a dialogue himself.<\/p>\n
He has dismissed POLAD as a Kitchen Party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NATIONAL Patriotic Front and ex-President Robert Mugabe\u2019s spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire has urged the direct involvement of the country\u2019s military in proposed national dialogue processes widely believed to be the panacea to the country\u2019s myriad problems. Zimbabwe\u2019s military has been heavily embedded with Zanu PF politics and has, on many occasions been blamed for fixing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[38,118,28,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-11920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-parties","9":"tag-zanu-pf","10":"tag-election","11":"tag-mugabe","12":"tag-spokesperson"},"yoast_head":"\n