Staff Reporter

….attacks Hopewell Chin’ono

Prominent constitutional lawyer and president of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA),Professor Lovemore Madhuku, has defended the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) as a useful platform that all Zimbabweans should embrace and criticized journalist and political activist, Hopewell Chin’ono, for hiding behind social media to attack people who share different views with him.

Addressing the media in Harare yesterday, Prof Madhuku said POLAD was an important platform where election winners and losers can work together for the development of the country.

“As NCA we believe that POLAD is a useful platform. It is an important platform for this country and it is a way forward for this country and that is our position. We are saying so because when an election has been contested there will always be one winner. It does not mean whether it is at ward level, or councilor or as President, there will always be a winner,” said Prof Madhuku.

Prof Madhuku said that it should be a norm that whoever wins an election should be able to work with losers for the development of the country.

“Whoever wins an election must work with losers. Between an election and the next election, the governance must be an affair of those that have won and working alongside those that have lost elections and we believe that is the way to go.

So there must be a POLAD in every ward. Winners must look for those who have lost the elections to work together and find out how best you can develop your constituency,” said Prof Madhuku.

Madhuku defended the vehicles that were given to POLAD principals and said those who were criticizing the issuance of vehicles were misinformed.

“The vehicles that have been talked about are actually POLAD vehicles which are Government vehicles. What we were given was a right to use these vehicles for POLAD purposes and for the work of our political parties,” said Prof Madhuku.

Prof Madhuku also said Hopewell Chin’ono should desist from portraying himself as more Zimbabwean than others as he has no monopoly of telling Zimbabweans which political party to support.

“Hopewell (Chin’ono) is always campaigning for Chamisa. I am sure he is entitled to criticize us but we know that the game is just politics. It’s not that he has more love for Zimbabwe.

I believe that POLAD is right and he doesn’t believe so and that is correct. But no Zimbabwean should hide behind a social media platform to be more Zimbabwean or to be more loving than others. Chin’ono should not tell the world that this one is treacherous,” fumed Prof Madhuku.

Last week POLAD principals received vehicles from Government and this has sparked an outcry, especially from opposition quarters, who accused the Government of splashing money on lection losers.