IN our NewsDay edition yesterday, we carried a story titled Chamisa has ‘devil’s chance’ of meeting ED: Mutsvangwa, where the Zanu PF spokesperson appears to pour cold water on prospects of talks between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and former Citizens Coalition for Change leader Nelson Chamisa.
Mutsvangwa told this publication last week that Chamisa had the “devil’s chance in heaven” to meet Mnangagwa to hear his concerns over the 2023 elections.
Chamisa has refused to accept the results arguing that the elections were rigged.
Even several regional and international electoral observers, including the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) election observer mission, flagged the polls as not free and fair.
But there is a time for playing politics and a time to consider the people of Zimbabwe in these political juggernauts.
We are now past politicking and playing to the gallery.
In all this madness, it is the ordinary citizen who is losing out.
When Zimbabweans went to the plebiscite, everyone will agree with us that they yearned for a better nation, where the authorities would create jobs, where the nation could tame hunger and poverty in the face of an El Niño-induced drought and where accommodation would be prioritised.
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But today, we have leaders who seem to have forgotten their task.
It should not be about who gets what in government, but how we should come to the negotiating table and discuss the way forward.
At the present moment, Zanu PF is pulling wool over our faces telling everyone who cares to listen that the country’s economy is growing.
But a reality check on the ground will prove the reality of high joblessness, cash shortages, decreased capacity utilisation, low exports, increased food insecurity, according to experts.
These challenges need all hands on deck.
The widely touted investment deals by the second republic cannot be tracked, investor interest has not translated to job creation and the job growth cannot be ascertained.
In fact, it would seem that Zimbabwe is worse off.
Corruption has reached new levels; tenders are being given to people who do not have the capacity to supply; those accused of pillaging government coffers are getting bail and later acquitted, and join the queue to access new positions.
Zimbabwe does not need all that.
It needs its people to come together and build their nation, as the saying goes: “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo”, meaning a country is built by its people.
Vox populi, vox dei, the voice of the people is the voice of God.
Zimbabweans are saying they want to see the country’s political protagonists on the negotiating table so that we move forward.
So Mr Mutsvangwa, Zimbabweans are saying “Come, let us reason together”.
Whether it will be Chamisa and Mnangagwa on the table or not, it remains that negotiations have to take place.
