Harare — A new political entity, the Zimbabwe Development Party, was launched on Monday night at a Harare hotel.

The party, whose president is Mr Kisnot Mukwazhi with Mr Facemore Museza as his deputy, pledged to contest the harmonised presidential, parliamentary and local government elections next month.

Mr Mukwazhi said although the opposition party, which comes 52 days before the elections scheduled for March 29, was new to politics, its leadership was not. The new opposition party's president said he is a former Zanu-PF cadre who actively participated in its activities in Masvingo province.

Addressing about 50 people, among them journalists, Mr Mukwazhi said his party would address all the problems Zimbabweans were facing.

He blamed some Cabinet ministers whom he accused of not implementing Zanu PF's good policies for causing the current economic challenges.

"Zanu-PF has done a lot in bringing independence and land but some Cabinet ministers are corrupt and mislead the head of state," he said, adding that his party recognised President Mugabe as the head of State and was against any efforts to remove him violently.

Mr Mukwazhi said that although his party hailed Zanu-PF for bringing independence and land to the people, they were against the manner in which the redistribution exercise was conducted. He took a swipe at the MDC for allegedly advocating for sanctions that were now affecting ordinary people.

"We do not want what the MDC has done in campaigning for sanctions. Because of sanctions, we are all suffering. We do not condone sanctions we want dialogue," he said. His deputy, Mr Museza, also castigated MDC leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai whom he accused of agitating for sanctions. He claimed the current hardships Zimbabweans were enduring were largely because of the irresponsible actions of the MDC.

Mr Mukwazhi, however, struggled to convince the gathering that witnessed the launch that the ZDP was a serious party to pose any meaningful challenge to existing political parties like Zanu-PF and the MDC formations.

The two left the hotel in a huff following a barrage of questions from sceptical journalists who demanded to know why Mr Mukwazhi's party had just mushroomed on the eve of an election.

They also wanted to know the party's sponsors, its offices' location and why there were no banners spelling out the party's policies and logo during the launch.