MOVEMENT For Democratic Change (MDC) president Nelson Chamisa has said Zimbabwe is in a state of chaos due to a political and governance crisis which is emanating from a stolen election.
He said without addressing this fundamental problem, the economy will not improve and the party will continue rolling out demonstrations until the impasse is resolved.
In an exclusive interview with Zim Morning Post on the eve of the August 16 protest, Chamisa said:
“The nature of the crisis is that it is a governance and political crisis not economic crisis, a lot of people are mistaking symptoms for the problem, the problem is political and it won’t take long to fix the country once the crisis is resolved.”
He added:
“The genesis of our problem is a stolen election, disputed election a stolen mandate which has resulted in stolen opportunities for the young people, working and non working citizens and that’s what we should address in order to get the country running.”
He said the current problem can only be fixed when the country has political reforms, nation building and healing as well as a national reengagement before international engagement, curing the legal system in the country.
Chamisa further said the political crisis would only be resolved when a genuine dialogue between the two major political parties within the country takes place.
“Zimbabweans voted in the previous election indicating their preferences and its clear there are two major political parties within the country and those are the parties that formulate the basis of a genuine dialogue,” he said.
He further said he was not power hungry as members of the ruling party have claimed, rather he was looking for a solution that could better the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans
“Power is the least of the motivation for some of us, when I invite him for a dialogue it’s not because we are power hungry but we want to share a vision and a future, I am not looking for a job because I am unemployed but I want to make a difference.”
Chamisa dismissed the claims that he was mobilizing protesters so that he forces his way to a power sharing agreement like in 2008 when the late Morgan Tsvangirai and President Mugabe ended up ‘in bed’.
“Power is a earmark, elusive, intoxicating and corrupt so it can’t be a baseline of the denominator lets share the vision and the future so that we are all moving together as a people united in vision and future.”
He reiterated that the end game of the current protests was not to force a power sharing agreement but to deal with the pertinent issues that have killed the current economy.