Dr. Sebastian Bakare, the Bishop of Harare, has repudiated claims that a national Indaba for Zimbabwe scheduled for March 2015 is a political stalking horse for the opposition MDC-T party led by Morgan Tsvangirai. Last week Dr. Bakare told reporters in the Central African nation that he was perturbed by published reports stating that Mr. Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party was organizing the National Convergence Platform, the NCP. “On reading this statement, I spoke to the MDC-T President on the phone expressing my consternation at his statement,” Dr. Bakare told conference organizers. A spokesman for President Robert Mugabe told the Harare Herald the ruling ZANU-PF party would have nothing to do with the NCP if it were being run by Mr. Tsvangirai’s party. Dr. Bakare said the MDC-T leader said he his comments had been taken out of context, and what he had meant was that the MDC-T would participate in the meetings. The NCP was formed by Dr. Bakare and other non-partisan civil society leaders after the July 2014 elections. Scheduled for March 2015, the NCP seeks to bring together key leaders from from churches, student groups, labour unions, non-governmental organizations, political parties, and other civil society and intellectual leaders to undertake an indaba, a round table discussion, of the future of the republic.
