| Tawanda Marwizi
A push by the opposition MDC structures for party president Nelson Chamisa to ditch efforts to engage his erstwhile rival President Mnangagwa for direct confrontation has left their youthful leader in a quandary, The Anchor has established. The MDC youth assembly and several members of the party’s standing committee have been pushing for Chamisa to lead from the front in revolting against the Zanu-PF led government against his wish for dialogue. Chamisa, an ordained pastor with the Apostolic Faith Mission, is reportedly against confronting government which could lead to unnecessary loss of innocent lives. However, Chamisa is under pressure from members who are demanding that he abandon his supposedly soft approach for direct confrontation with the police and government. According to highly placed sources, the agitated members felt Chamisa was being soft leading to the banning of several party programmes including demonstrations and rallies by the police. “Members are not happy with his approach to the situation. Our plans for peaceful demonstrations have been crashed by the police, people are being beaten but we seem to be giving in to the dictatorship,” the sources said. They said the members have openly told Chamisa that calls for dialogue will not help the party in moving forward. “Most people especially the youth are saying a call for dialogue has failed because our political rivals are not eager to come to the table. “As if that is not enough they are doing their best to crash anything that we want to do as a party,” they said. This week police banned Chamisa’s planned “State of the Nation Address” at Stordart Hall in Mbare on Wednesday. The ban triggered emotions within the MDC camp and Chamisa came out guns blazing saying the event would go on despite the order by the law enforcement agents. A furious Chamisa then took to Twitter to warn uthe police that he would go ahead with the event on Tuesday next week. “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. We’ve exhausted all channels. We can’t continue to be victims of unjust application of the law. Rights are for all. On Tuesday 21st Jan we will deliver the people’s Agenda 2020 to the nation come what may. #peoplesgovernment,” Chamisa tweeted. Party spokesperson Daniel Molokele said they would go ahead with the planned state of the nation address. “We are going ahead with state of the nation address and the President is clear. We are not machete gangs but a political party that was even given the mandate to rule by the people,” he said. Calls for dialogue between President Mnangagwa and Chamisa have been ringing across the country and SADC region amid fears of a declining political and economic situation in Zimbabwe. However, divergent views from the opposing parties continues to be an albatross to engagement with both setting stringent conditions for dialogue.
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