Chamisa in crucial meeting 

Source: Chamisa in crucial meeting – DailyNews Live

Blessings Mashaya      28 August 2018

HARARE – The national council of the MDC party led by Nelson Chamisa is
meeting in Harare tomorrow to map the way forward, amid indications that
it may roll out crippling demonstrations against President Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s government.

Party secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora confirmed to the Daily News that
the MDC’s highest decision-making organ outside congress will convene its
first meeting tomorrow after its presidential hopeful lost his case in the
Constitutional Court (Con-Court) on Friday.

He said: “Yes we are meeting but get full details from the president’s
office”.

Last week, Chamisa told mourners at the funeral of former minister of
Housing and Social Amenities Fidelis Mhashu that the national council
would meet soon.

The 40-year-old opposition leader had hoped to overturn Mnangagwa’s
victory in the Con-Court, but his case was dismissed with costs last
Friday.

He told journalists in his first media briefing after the Con-Court
judgment that he respectfully rejected the ruling, before his party
escalated its case to the African Commission for Human and People’s
Rights.

Chamisa said it was not the duty of the court to confer legitimacy.

“I respect the Constitutional Court but I have problems with their
findings. Chief Justice (Luke) Malaba made it clear that it is not the
duty of the court to confer legitimacy on any particular candidate.

“He said the legal door was not the only door to happiness and democracy.

“There are many other doors, and the political doors are going to be
opened very soon using our Constitution,” he said.

On Sunday, Chamisa snubbed Mnangagwa’s inauguration, dealing a major blow
to the Zanu PF leader’s call for peace and unity.

A number of opposition party leaders from other fringe political parties
attended Mnangagwa’s inauguration, among them Thokozani Khupe of the
MDC-T.

Chamisa’s absence was a huge setback for Mnangagwa in the sense that he
leads the largest opposition party in the country.

Countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States have called on
the protagonists in the Zimbabwe crisis to dialogue and break the
political impasse.

Chamisa’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda told the Daily News yesterday
that apart from the meeting of the MDC’s national council, his boss was
also consulting with the people of Zimbabwe on the way forward.

“The president is always meeting the people. He is meeting the people
every day. He is engaging the people on how they can defend their votes,”
Sibanda said.

The national council is the MDC’s highest decision-making body in between
congresses, comprising 198 members drawn from the national standing
committee, national executive and members of the National Assembly, among
several others from the provincial structures of the party.

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