Renewal Team welcomes talks with MDC-T, Zanu PF

via Renewal Team welcomes talks with MDC-T, Zanu PF – NewsDay Zimbabwe February 27, 2015 by Moses Matenga

THE MDC Renewal Team says it is looking forward for talks with the Zanu PF and MDC-T with a view to reach consensus on how to address the plight of Zimbabweans under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe.

Renewal Team treasurer-general Elton Mangoma told NewsDay yesterday that talks with the MDC-T and Zanu PF would be crucial to save millions of citizens whose suffering was nowhere near the end.

He, however, said the talks would not be looking to come up with a government of national unity, but finding a lasting solution by way of a national technical transitional committee, adding that the national convergence platform organised by Bishop Sebastian Bakare was a welcome opportunity to deal with the crisis the country was facing.

“We want to have a place where we can talk about many of these things. We now have the convergence platform organised by Bishop Sebastian Bakare and if he says let’s talk, we don’t have any problem with that. Actually, it’s not new to us because we were once on the same table with Zanu PF,” Mangoma said.

“You can’t build this nation without including other people. We need to be together because everyone is suffering except Zanu PF ministers. We are an inclusive nation.”

Organisers of the convergence said they would be inviting leaders from all political parties, civic society and churches to try and come up with a solution to the crisis in the country.

Mangoma said they were not expecting another unity government, but a transitional authority to take Zimbabwe out of the mess the opposition said was created by the Mugabe regime.

On reports of fights between him and secretary-general Tendai Biti for the party’s top post, Mangoma said: “There are no fights at all. I am one of the leaders and there is no reason to be fighting for anything. We are all pushing to make things better.”

The former Energy minister dramatically walked out of the MDC-T citing dictatorship tendencies by Morgan Tsvangirai, while calling for the opposition leader to step down.

Together with other party leaders, among them Sekai Holland, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo and several MPs, Mangoma claimed to have fired Tsvangirai and his loyalists from the MDC-T before coming up with the MDC Renewal Team.