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BIG STORY :

Professor Arthur Mutambara disowns Herald Story.

Editorial

11 December 2018  09:45

By Zimbo24news

In a new turn of events Professor Arthur Mutambabra has refuted a story that appeared on the top page of today's Herald Newspaper which alleges that Professor Arthur Mutambara had endorsed the Legitimacy of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The Herald publication had alleged that Arthur Mutambara , during an interview with the SABC television had conceded that indeed President Mnangagwa won the July 30 elections.

The leading headline in the State publication screamed ' Ex-DPM Mutambabra trashes GNU talk.
It quotes Mutambabra as having intimated in his televised interview that President Mnangagwa enjoyed the endorsement and support of SADC and the African Union thereby leaving the MDC Alliance 'marooned in its quest to negotiate power after losing elections in which the ruling party got more than two-thirds majority of parliamentary representation'.

The Herald continued saying that Prof Mutambara had slated the opposition for its lack of strategy and ridiculed it for planning to spend the next five years “crying about a stolen election”.

Professor Arthur Mutambara was talking following the launch of his second book in a series of three entitled “The Path to Power — In Search for the Elusive Zimbabwe Dream”.

In the interview he said the conditions that created the previous GNU, where he was Deputy Prime Minister as the ruling Zanu-PF shared power with the MDC factions, had altered significantly in 2018.

“Number one, the opposition is not challenging Parliament, ZANU- PF controls two thirds majority in Parliament,” he explained.

“In our case, we the opposition controlled the majority and ZANU- PF were in the minority. Secondly, when we said Mugabe was illegitimate after the run-off we had the support of South Africa, SADC and the African Union.

Unfortunately in this situation, where there is a challenge to the legitimacy of President Mnangagwa, the South Africans have endorsed Mnangagwa, SADC have endorsed Mnangagwa and the AU have endorsed Mnangagwa which makes it very difficult to operationalise the challenge to the legitimacy of Mnangagwa,” said Prof Mutambara.

He said the opposition’s case was weak because it was not challenging Zanu-PF’s two-thirds Parliamentary majority but just the Presidential victory.

But in response to the Herald article Professor Arthur Mutambara said that the story in the Herald was nothing but a result of a bit of a spin to add some spice to his opinion on the Political environment in Zimbabwe.

He told this publication, ' I said it is very difficult to operationalise the challenge to Mnangagwa' legitimacy because he has got the necessary endorsement and support from SouthAfrica, SADC and the African Union,' before he quickly refered this publication to the short video clip of the television interview.

In the interview watched by this writer Professor Mutambara says that the 2018 elwctions were not free and fair but quickly emphasises that there was a big positive difference from the 2008 one.

He says the difference is that firstly in 2008 the opposition had a majority in Parliament which is not the case this time around.
He also says that secondly then in 2008 the opposition had the support and solidarity of the South African government, SADC and the AU , which support and solidarity they dont have this time around.If anything he says that the Opposition is isolated and incapacitated.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has the critical support, endorsement and solidarity of these and more very important Countries and International organisation , which was not the case for Robert Mugabe.

Professor Mutambara questions the opposition's veracity when they question the legitimacy of the Presidency and yet accept their Parliamentary defeat to the same Party.He questions how the MDC Alliance intends to run the government with a Parliamentary minority in the unlikely event that they win the legitimacy battle.

He urged parties to look inside and to identify their inherent Weaknesses and to find appropriate remedies.
Professor Mutambara called for what he termed 'Strategic thinking' while he emphadised that it would be folly for the opposition to spend the next five years crying about a stolen election.

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