Zimbabweans have since last week been talking about political talks said to be taking place in secrecy, bringing together officials from Zanu PF, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its breakaways in an effort to find a solution to move the country forward.
The talks were supposed to be known to a few people only but one of the top officials attending them leaked information to the media.
Now the leak seems to have derailed the talks with some officials saying they have not been invited for further rounds, starting with one that was expected to be held Thursday in the resort town of Victoria Falls. It’s not clear whether the meeting was held as planned.
Though the MDC led by former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the Professor Welshman Ncube MDC confirmed the talks, Zanu PF, which is struggling with internal factions regarding President Robert Mugabe’s speculation, said they never happened.
Nevertheless, speculation is rife on the formation of a second unity government.
For perspective reporter Tatenda Gumbo spoke with Zanu PF member and analyst, Goodson Nguni, and political analyst Charles Mutasa.
Mutasa said there is no harm in holding talks between political parties.
"It's not clear whether this was to form a GNU but what I know is that both parties have talked about working together to resolve electoral issues, the constitutional alignment of laws,” said Mutasa.
He added that there are various reasons why stories like this would have been leaked, pointing to the different factions in all the political camps.
“Indeed the talks in Ghana were not about a GNU, but they were talks that would lead to people talking about the GNU anyway, you cannot rule out that.
Nguni said he agreed on the need for political parties to talk, but warned there was no chance Zanu PF would be open to another GNU.
“First of all can I make is very clear that Zanu PF has no need to form a government of national unity with any of the MDC formations, because the MDC formations lost the elections and they were rejected by the people of Zimbabwe,” said Nguni.
