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Chamisa laments: “it’s unfortunate that I am alone”

Movement for Democratic Change Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa, who insists that he won the 30 July elections and will be installed the legitimate president when his party holds its anniversary this weekend says it is unfortunate that he is alone with his national approach so the country is not going to move forward.

In an interview with Newsday, Chamisa who is insisting on dialogue with President Emmerson Mnangagwa whom he says lost the election but was declared the winner by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Constitutional Court said Mnangagwa had so far refused to talk with him.

“It must be understood that we are not being unreasonable,” Chamisa said. “We want this country to genuinely move forward. People are suffering and a Cabinet that rests on the grounds of illegitimacy and disputed outcome is on shaky ground and even if they want to argue that they are the ones in power, that is not how you move forward. Even in matured democracies, they always find a way to find each other. It is so unfortunate that I am alone in the room with my national approach.”

Mnangagwa was sworn in on 26 August and appointed his cabinet on Friday. The cabinet, which has widely been welcomed is due to be sworn in today.

Chamisa dismissed the cabinet and has been under attack for his comments on new Youth Minister Kirsty Coventry.

Some women have blasted Chamisa for misogyny which is the hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls.

They cite examples of how he pledged his sister to Mnangagwa if he won more than 5 percent of the vote in the coming elections, how he embarrassed his former colleague Thokozani Khupe and now his attack on Coventry.

Chamisa’s spokesman Nkulueko Sibanda, however, said his boss’s comments were not derogatory at all.

“We would like to emphasise what the president said in Shona yesterday, which is that Kirsty Coventry is ‘our swimmer’. That she is a swimmer who has made this country proud and excited, even when there was nothing else to smile about. He affectionately referred to Kirsty Coventry, albeit, in Shona as ‘our swimmer’! For this reason, we de-emphasise the ill-intended rampant social media insinuation that the use of Shona was wrong,” he said.

Asked by Newsday what he meant by saying he was alone, Chamisa responded: “I am alone in my national view to unite the country, to be patriotic, to be forward looking.

“President Mnangagwa is choosing a partisan view. He is forgetting about the national perspective. We contested the election and we won it. Mnangagwa claims he was declared by Zec (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) and claims that ConCourt (Constitutional Court) declared him, but beyond that the nation must be able to sit and say: What is our national problem?

“Courts and Zec cannot resolve legitimacy issues. This belongs to the forum of the citizens, the forum of the political players, the forum of the political leadership and that leadership is not one party, but different parties and especially the dominant parties.”

(641 VIEWS)

This post was last modified on %s = human-readable time difference 7:49 am

Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

View Comments

  • This self proclaimed president must realise that walking alone very dangerous. Its better he choose to walk with others . You can't built this country alone. There is not one person who will rescue this country,single handedly even if he or she comes from the moon other than God.That's the reason why every Patriotic Zimbabwean have decided to come together, now that the election s are over, we need to accept the outcome of the elections and move forward together. Remember the saying ,together we stand but divided we fall.Biblically, whatever we ask from God as one family shall be grunted thus we me ask God to give wisdom to our new readers and the Carbinet that was recently sworn in by The President of our New Zimbabwe. So as of now,who ever is with us is not of us. Sexist from being a prophet of doom,but prophet of hope.Why is you seem to be the only one who doesn't see the light in the tunnel.God help Zimbabwe,The voice of the people have spoken and that's the voice of The Lord,Yahweh,Almighty.

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