Mnangagwa reaches out to Mugabe – Nehanda Radio скачать в хорошем качестве

Mnangagwa reaches out to Mugabe – Nehanda Radio

By Fungi Kwaramba President and his predecessor, , are laying the ground for talks to thaw frosty relations between them, the Daily can exclusively reveal. The first face-to-face meeting between the erstwhile comrades since the that ousted Mugabe last November is likely to be held mid next month. Relations between Mugabe and his former protégé are at an all-time low as the former president accuses his successor of ruling the country “illegally”. Mnangagwa has responded by rebuking Mugabe, saying he has no time for an old man with a propensity to forget things. Despite publicly puffing their chests and feigning bravado, the Daily can reveal that the man who was at the centre of delicate talks that led to Mugabe’s forced resignation last November — Roman Catholic cleric Father Fidelis Mukonori — has yet again been dispatched by the “new dispensation” to intervene and try to sweet-talk Mugabe into silence and engagement with Mnangagwa. Mukonori, along with businessman Jimayi Muduvuri, who is the patron of the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches Council, initially visited the former president on Friday last week and then on Tuesday this week to set the ball rolling. While details of the discussion remain a closely-guarded secret, speculation has it that the mediators are preparing the ground for talks between Mugabe and Mnangagwa by defining the rules of engagement and establishing substantive issues from both sides to form the agenda of the discussions. Contacted for comment, Mukonori said “yes, I visited him” but declined to comment further, saying he was attending to something with the police. On the other hand, Muduvuri fumed “who told you that”? Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba, was not picking up his mobile. Although Muduvuri and Mukonori could not be drawn into commenting on the issue, the former recently indicated that he will try to bring the two leaders to the talking table to repair a relationship of nearly 60 years that was broken by Mnangagwa’s dismissal from both government and Zanu PF in November last year. A few days after Mnangagwa’s dismissal, the military responded by stepping into the administration of the country and Zanu PF in a that ousted Mugabe after 37 years of continuous rule. “Now, as the church, we are saying that whoever is pushing Mugabe back into politics is wrong. It is evil to abuse such an elderly person. Mnangagwa came to power to defend this revolution and all churches are behind the president. Some have asked me to engage the former president so that the two find each other and I have already done that,” Muduvuri told the Daily on March 11. While Mugabe had been allowed to lead a quiet life after losing power, the tables were turned when he started speaking out against Mnangagwa through an interview granted to local and foreign journalists at his palatial Borrowdale home, popularly known as the Blue Roof. During the interview, he berated Mnangagwa for seizing power and said his successor betrayed him.