BRENNA MATENDERE
ZANU PF has completed the capture of main opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) using state security agents as well as leveraging on Parliament and the judiciary.
The complete capture of the CCC has manifested in the recent development where self-imposed secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu got parliamentary positions.
Tshabangu who appointed himself Matabeleland North provincial senator using borrowed powers, was on this past week named leader of the opposition in Parliament, overseeing both the National Assembly and the Senate, a position previously occupied by MDC leader Douglas Mwonzora but rejected by former CCC leader Nelson Chamisa.
The announcement of 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, the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum, the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), and the African, Caribbean and Pacific-European Union, among others.
Additionally, Tshabangu was appointed to the Parliament Standing Rules and Orders Committee, the highest decision-making body in the legislative assembly.
His membership in the IPU, the global parliamentary organisation, is a further reward for the hatchet job.
After last year’s August 23 and 24 general elections, Tshabangu’s recalls handed Zanu PF Mt Pleasant and Harare East constituencies in the subsequent by-elections, gifting the ruling party 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 of about one million.
The Delimitation Commission, that draws constituency boundaries, and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which runs elections, suppressed voters in Harare during the 2023 general elections.
Zanu PF’s victory redrew the Harare electoral map for the first time since 2000, signifying the subversion of multi-party democracy.
The opposition CCC, partly controlled by Tshabangu, is now a captured party doing Zanu PF’s bidding, while maintaining its authoritarian political project. Tshabangu now has a Toyota 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, Mercedes-Benz and perks from Parliament as a reward for again decimating the opposition. Senator Sengezo Tshabangu with a Zanu PF member.
The democratic cost of Tshabangu’s shenanigans is rising as Zanu PF keeps on enabling Zanu PF to claw its way back into urban areas.
The party was largely exiled to rural areas by the now defucnt MDC from 2000.
Tshabangu’s manoeuvres, supported by the executive, Parliament and the judiciary, as well as state security agents and bitter individuals in blind fury, have taken the democratic struggle in Zimbabwe 24 years back.
After delivering a parliamentary twothirds majority for Zanu PF and urban seats, Tshabangu named the price: A senate seat, Toyota Fortuner and money.
He is now living large after delivering for President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF, with whom he now hobnobs and poses for photos at state functions.
