THE country’s opposition parties are in sixes and sevens following their devastating electoral defeat to ZANU-PF last year, with those yearning for political change surrendering to the prospect of President Robert Mugabe’s party continuing its reign beyond the next general polls, slated for 2018. In recent months, the country’s major opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), led by former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai has been hit by divisive power struggles, dampening the spirits of those who had seen it as an alternative to ZANU-PF.
An offshoot of the main MDC-T, led by Welshman Ncube, has had its fair share of problems as well. It went into the July 31, 2013 elections plagued by leadership wrangles between Ncube and former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
The MDC’s woes changed complexion after the polls. Several members of the MDC have quit the party over the secondment of Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, the party’s secretary-general, to Parliament on proportional representation without a convincing explanation. Not even the smaller parties have stayed the course. From the MDC99 led by Job Sikhala to ZAPU led by Dumiso Dabengwa and Simba Makoni’s Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MKD), they are all licking the political wounds inflicted on them at the last polls.
In the case of MKD, MDC99 and ZAPU, they have remained in the shadows of the personalities that established them, which goes to show that they are struggling to have a life of their own even after years of existence. The biggest disease afflicting ZANU-PF’s rivals has been political squabbling. It’s a disease that has even reared its ugly head in the newly formed National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) party, with sharp differences emerging over policy positions.
Senior NCA figures such as Takura Zhangazha parted ways with the Lovemore Madhuku-led political outfit before it had even elected a substantive leadership. While those clamouring for change do not give a hoot about what is happening in the NCA and other smaller opposition parties, it is the dog-eat-dog affair in the MDC-T that has deferred their hope for change.
Tsvangirai, the MDC-T leader, is currently under pressure to hand over the baton before the party’s elective congress in 2016. His reluctance to give way to a fresh pair of hands and the violence and intimidation being meted out by his backers on those calling for leadership renewal within the MDC-T has brought to the fore the lack of internal democracy in the party — a principle that it said it espoused when it was founded.
The political squabbling, coupled with the ZANU-PF-led government’s hostile policies mostly aimed at fragmenting and weakening the opposition parties through draconian legislation have meant that President Mugabe’s power retention agenda stays the course. Between now and the next election, the opposition parties are likely to be preoccupied with nursing their wounds and not keeping ZANU-PF up on its toes. While others like MKD appear to have gone into hibernation, the MDC-T will have to deal with its internal power struggles until its elective congress, unless Tsvangirai accedes to an early congress.
The upheavals and lack of a clear direction in the opposition has created a vacuum in terms of the important roles that they must play in strengthening the democratic culture, shaping policy agendas, fighting corruption, promoting constructive debate or better still act as a training ground for the country’s future leaders. At the end of the day, what is known about the parties is that they want to remove President Mugabe from office, without any clear plan or strategy for policy-based political contestation and competition.
Zimbabwean opposition parties, according to analysts, are therefore at risk of being attacked by the curse afflicting many opposition parties in Africa: They become active only during an election and disappear when the election is over. Political analyst, Gideon Chitanga, this week said the parties appear to be institutionally and intellectually ill-equipped for policy interrogation, save to say that they want to be the country’s next rulers.
“The opposition is stuck with the shock of reversals of the 2013 elections. Instead of focussing on holding government accountable, they have been so inward looking, witch-hunting and apportioning blame, a process that might lead to serious internal fragmentation,” said Chitanga. But a few Members of Parliament are making themselves heard in Parliament although there seems to lack support from the political parties in terms of research and policy propositions to strengthen their positions.
In recent weeks, some of the lawmakers have been pushing for Parliament to constitute a probe team that would investigate rampant corruption at State-run organisations while their parties play a spectator role in the face of the deepening economic crisis. On Monday, the director of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, Rashweat Mukundu, said while opposition parties should present themselves as governments in waiting, they have so far been found wanting.
For example, instead of expending funds on rallies as he is currently doing, Mukundu said MDC-T leader Tsvangirai should have gone to Masvingo to see and sympathise with victims of the Tokwe-Murkosi flooding disaster which could be a source of support. “The key role of an opposition party is to counter bad policies and make tangible proposals, carry out research and fact-finding inquiries on government performance, as well as present itself as a viable government in waiting. None of this is happening,” he said.
But even after dealing with their internal upheavals, few would still give the opposition parties a chance to succeed in dislodging ZANU-PF from power unless they form a coalition. At the weekend, Tsvangirai told a rally in Harare that Sikhala and Ncube who left the MDC-T following the October 2005 split, must come back to the party to present a united front against ZANU-PF. It seems that Tsvangirai is making the proposition when the horse has already bolted.
Attempts to unite the opposition parties ahead of the 2008 election went unheeded, resulting in the MDC-T falling short of achieving the threshold that would have enabled it to avoid a run-off. Similar suggestions were also made ahead of last year’s polls, but were again ignored, contributing to Tsvangirai and Ncube’s devastating loss.
But does this mean, ZANU-PF would win again in 2018 as opposition parties appear to have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing? Sikhala vowed that ZANU-PF would not win in the next general polls, hinting at the joining of forces to oust President Mugabe’s party from power. “For those assuming that ZANU-PF will win the 2018 elections, it’s overstretching their imagination. I am prepared to bet with anyone. ZANU-PF is going to crumble come 2018. There is going be a serious realignment of forces and ZANU-PF won’t be able to stop that juggernaut,” said Sikhala.
Sikhala said the notion that all opposition parties are not doing anything stems from the fact that the media concentrates too much on the MDC-T and leaves out other political players.
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