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Walter Nyamukondiwa Mashonaland West Bureau
FORMER National Alliance for Good Governance (NAGG) president Mr Shakespeare Maya, who has since rejoined Zanu-PF, has hailed President Mnangagwa’s triple-pronged re-engagement drive saying it has placed the country on a solid path to economic recovery.

Speaking at the Chinhoyi Press Club recently, Mr Maya said Zanu-PF was the only party that was able to spearhead broad-based development and protect the nation’s interests.

The opposition leader, who has participated in the Presidential elections since 2000 and retraced his footsteps to the ruling party in 2018, said opposition politics was a mirage and likened it to a desert.

“Since my return I have taken time to look closely at the new dispensation as a concept. I looked at several of its pillars and one which is attractive to me is that of re-engagement because we are on this planet together with others,” said Mr Maya.

“We are inter-connected, it will be very difficult for any country to seek to proceed and survive on its own while on this planet. It is clear that we had been so disjointed with the rest of the world and it was difficult for us to participate fully and meaningfully in a symbiotic association with other nations.”

He said President Mnangagwa was pursuing local, regional and international engagement which was a departure from the old dispensation which was averse to even local engagement with business and civic society.

“President Mnangagwa is not only engaging the international community. He has the local and international phases of engagement. We all know that Government never engaged non-governmental organisations and we see the current dispensation doing exactly that,” said Mr Maya.

The effort, he said, was however, not being fully reciprocated as some Western countries were only looking at their personal interests.

“They want us to deal with superficial issues. What President Mnangagwa is doing, however, is what was lacking. We had become a pariah state,” he said.

The President’s efforts, he said, had resulted in some protagonists managing to see his sincerity including Women of Zimbabwe Arise founder Mrs Jenni Williams, who recently described him as a listening President.

Turning to Zanu-PF, Mr Maya said his readmission had ended his many years in the political Diaspora where he wasted his energy.

“I came back to give a hand to the efforts of national reconstruction under the new dispensation as espoused by the new Zanu-PF leadership under President Mnangagwa.

“I know, as most Zimbabweans who choose to be honest should know that Zanu-PF provides the best institutional and ideological formulation for the development of our country and the protection of its national interests,” he said.

“Docking back into Zanu-PF was made easy for me because of Operation Restore Legacy which ushered in an atmosphere which presented Zanu-PF as a fitting home for any Zimbabwean or any associate seeking to channel their endeavours into the reconstruction of the country.”