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Gibson Nyikadzino Herald Correspondent

MDC-T leader Mr Douglas Mwonzora has asked President Mnangagwa to announce when the national political parties’ dialogue process will commence.

He endorsed the process after a meeting with the Head of State and Government on January 6 at State House. The plea came after Mr Mwonzora’s party recommended urgency for the process after its National Executive meeting held on Friday.

At the same meeting, the opposition party resolved to expel its vice president Dr Thokozani Khupe for working with the G40 cabal, who allegedly advised her to announce that the party had split.

“We are not seeking endorsement for dialogue after the by-election, we are seeking for commencement of the dialogue,” said Mr Mwonzora.

“The actual talking. As you know a lot of time has been spent in preparations for dialogue. Now we have finished the preparations and we now want to do the actual dialogue.

“It must begin immediately after the by-elections. We also have said these discussions must be time-bound and we are confident of a deal that will be in the interests of Zimbabweans.”

President Mnangagwa set the Political Actors’ Dialogue (POLAD) platform after the 2018 elections to engage with all political parties that participated in the polls.

The bulk of the parties are party to POLAD and the MDC-T wants to join after the former leader Nelson Chamisa had sought to have engagements with President Mnangagwa in the absence of other parties.

That arrangement was opposed, with the President insisting that all talks would be under the auspices of POLAD.

Turning to Dr Khupe, Mr Mwonzora said his party was open to an idea to dialogue with people who have political parties.

“Dialogue with Dr Khupe? I do not know because we dialogue with people who have political parties. We do not know what her political party is.

“We will see as time goes on what she is representing but, of course, we are there to dialogue with anyone,” he said.

Dr Khupe’s decision to announce that the MDC-T was splitting, he said, was informed by G40 members who were kicked out of Zanu PF such as ex-Higher Education Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo.

“The declaration of a split as Dr Khupe did is not provided for anywhere in our party and national constitutions. This legal advice came from some members of the G40, Jonathan Moyo in particular. As usual, that was a disastrous legal advice. Jonathan Moyo and his group have never advised anyone correctly,” added Mr Mwonzora.