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Joseph Madzimure, Sarare Bureau

ALL is set for the official launch of the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) at the Harare International Conference Centre in the capital today with at least 5 000 delegates expected to attend.

An official within the secretariat confirmed the development saying everything has been put in place for the grand occasion in the history of Zimbabwe under the New Dispensation.

“All invited political parties have submitted lists of their representatives and everything is in place for the successful hosting of the event,” said the source.

President Mnangagwa will officially launch the event, which seeks to foster unity among Zimbabweans.

The event was initiated by President Mnangagwa as part of his commitment to improve the livelihoods of the people.

The political actors in the national dialogue met and adopted a code of conduct meant to promote conditions encouraging dialogue and built on political tolerance, mutual respect, consensus, information dissemination and commitment to principles outlined in the dialogue.

The ruling party Zanu-PF and other parties that contested last year’s elections, have made a commitment to improve the livelihoods of the people through mutual dialoguing.

 MDC-T vice president Mr Obert Gutu said they were committed to the improvement of people’s lives.

“The MDC-T is determined to contribute to the betterment of the lives of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe. We want to see the national economy re-booting with jobs and employment opportunities being created for our people,” he said.

“Our main reason and purpose for participating in the ongoing Political Actors Dialogue is to make a positive and patriotic contribution towards the governance of our country. Although we are not in Government, we believe that as a patriotic, progressive Pan-Africanist and people-centred political party, we should be afforded the opportunity and forum to put across our views and suggestions on how the country should be governed. 

“Our expectations are to have a mature, mutually respectful, patriotic and progressive national discourse where all pertinent issues are robustly discussed and debated without fear or favour. Where we disagree with the Zanu-PF led Government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, we will clearly and fearlessly articulate the areas.” 

Coalition of Democrats leader, Mr Elton Mangoma said Zimbabweans should always talk to each other. 

“The first thing is that as Zimbabweans we should always have a culture of dialogue. People should be prepared to sit down and talk about all issues and when we have disagreements we should always find each other through dialogue.

“Without pre-emptying the message I will deliver, my message going forward is that united we stand, divided we fall,” he said.

“I urge our people to take advantage of this historic moment and find each other because as Zimbabweans, we are one irrespective of our political affiliations. The most important thing is that we need to revive our economy and that can only happen if we are united.

“This dialogue process has shown that we need to be engaging each other as a nation always and it is my hope that those who have shunned dialogue so far will see sense and join us. I thank President Mnangagwa for creating this platform, which was not the case in the past.”

The co-conveners of the dialogue process are the chairperson of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, Retired Justice Sello Nare and his Gender Commission counterpart, Mrs Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe.

The launch of POLAD is a culmination of an engagement process that was initiated by President Mnangagwa when he invited leaders of the 23 parties that took part in last year’s elections for dialogue.