BRENNA MATENDERE
SELF-IMPOSED Citizens’ Coalition for Change secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu, who is in line to pocket a taxpayer-funded windfall from the state purse, is being rewarded for demolishing the opposition to give Zanu PF a twothirds majority in the lower house so that it can tinker with the constitution and extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s second term.
Tshabangu is also credited with bringing Zanu PF back into urban areas through unrestrained recalls of elected MPs which ushered in by-elections.
Tshabangu, who appointed himself Matabeleland North provincial senator using rented powers, was on Thursday named leader of the opposition in Parliament.
In this newfound role, he will be overseeing both the National Assembly and the Senate, a position previously occupied by MDC leader Douglas Mwonzora.
Tshabangu’s new role was announced by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob Mudenda.
Effectively, Tshabangu will serve as the primary liaison for the government and various stakeholders in all engagements with the opposition.
His responsibilities will include forming portfolio committees and appointing chairpersons to represent the opposition in key international organisations.
These organisations include the Pan African Parliament (PAP), the Southern African Development Community (Sadc), Parliamentary Forum, the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the African, Caribbean and Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU), among others.
Additionally, Tshabangu was appointed to Parliament’s Standing Rules and Orders Committee, the highest decision-making body in the legislative assembly.
His membership in the International Parliamentary Union, the global parliamentary organisation, is a further reward for the hatchet job.
After the general elections of 23 and 24 August 2023, Tshabangu’s recalls handed Zanu PF Mt Pleasant and Harare East constituencies in the subsequent by-elections, resulting in the ruling party securing seven seats in the capital for the first time since 2000 when it lost control of the country’s urban constituencies.
Harare metropolitan province, a major opposition stronghold, has 29 National Assembly constituencies even though it has by far the largest number of registered voters at about one million.
The Delimitation Commission, which draws constituency boundaries, and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which runs elections, suppressed voters in Harare during the August 2023 general elections.
Zanu PF’s victory redrew the Harare electoral map for the first time since 2000, signifying the subversion of democracy.
Observers say the opposition CCC, partly controlled by Tshabangu, is now a captured party doing Zanu PF’s bidding to maintain its authoritarian grip on power.
The observers say Tshabangu is now firmly positioned at the feeding trough. He now has an off-road Fortuner all-terrain vehicle, cash and power from fronting Zanu PF interests as a pseudo-opposition leader just like Mwonzora who came out with a farm, a Mercedes-Benz vehicle and perks from Parliament as a reward again for his role in decimating the MDC, then a formidable opposition party.
The democratic cost of Tshabangu’s shenanigans is rising as Zanu PF keeps on clawing back into urban areas from the woodwork.
The party was largely exiled to rural areas since the advent of the MDC then led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Observers say Tshabangu’s manoeuvres, supported by the executive, Parliament and the judiciary as well as state security agents and bitter opposition individuals in blind fury, have taken the democratic struggle in Zimbabwe 24 years back.
He is now living large after delivering for President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF, whom he now hobnobs with and poses for photos at state functions.
