LOVEMORE CHINOPUTSA
I COME to you on this day the 14th of February 2024, a significant day in the history of our struggle which brought a lot of changes to the political landscape of the country.
It is a dark day in which all democracy-loving citizens of this country were dealt a major blow following the passing on of the iconic former prime minister of the Republic, Dr Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. May his soul rest in peace.
I chose to speak on this day, [Tsvangirai died on 14 February 2018] as it carries a significant place in the history of opposition and where we are now as the alternative. I am convinced beyond doubt that we have digressed from the aspirations of President Tsvangirai who sought to create a democratic vehicle to fight the excesses of the ruling Zanu PF. It is in that respect that I will attempt to bring out to the fore some of the biggest challenges that we have faced as a country and as a political outfit that sought to replace a corrupt Zanu PF government.
It is in the public domain that I have for the past two decades worked tirelessly together with many comrades in the pursuit of genuine democracy, freedoms and economic emancipation of the people of this great country. This is a journey that has its roots at the University Of Zimbabwe where we understood the task at hand; that although we were fighting for academic freedoms, we also carried an extra responsibility as citizens to pursue and collaborate with like-minded individuals in the fight for a better Zimbabwe.
There have been serious elite contradictions within the movement in terms of which direction to take going forward and what could be the best approach to persecuting a protracted mass-driven onslaught against the electoral fraud that continues to be witnessed in every electoral cycle.
The resignation of the president of the CCC [Nelson Chamisa] was the final nail in the coffin of the shortlived political outfit which, despite so many false narratives, was actually born out of a protracted struggle with fellow compatriots in the then MDC-Alliance.
The outfit which was buried and taken to the dustbin of history with the resignation of the face of that movement was brought about by a significant life-changing decision of the then MDC-Alliance national council meeting that mandated the [party] president to sit down with a smaller team to configure the party and come up with a vehicle that was not tainted and that could be used for the purposes of the by-elections that were upcoming. The rest is history and will not belabour that historical narrative as it does not form the gist of my address to you, fellow Zimbabweans. Suffice to say that what followed in terms of the pronouncements leading up to the formation of the outfit was a total departure from the agreed position, as a completely new outfit was formed which sought to depart from how the party had been run in the past.
The recalls as instigated by one Sengezo Tshabangu led to the total decimation of the CCC as a competent vehicle to deliver meaningful change to the people of Zimbabwe. There were willy nilly recalls of legitimately elected members of Parliament which as we are all aware led to the donation of several seats to Zanu PF by a cabal that was never supposed to be making decisions on behalf of the party.
The treacherous politics as represented by Tshabangu, Kucaca Phulu and a few others who have openly and indirectly supported this decimation deserves the highest condemnation by any well-meaning individual in this country. I unequivocally state that I have never understood the paternity of Tshabangu shenanigans and, in unequivocal terms, I call out his treacherous politics for what it is. It is a diversionary tactic meant to weaken the movement and derive many communities of legitimate representation and it casts a serious doubt on the impartiality of our judiciary system. It is in my view a collaboration with Zanu PF to decimate and destroy the movement as well as divert people from the failure by Zanu PF to deliver on the electoral promises they made.
The events in the movement has not been short of drama in the past few months. The infighting that rocked the party had created fissures and alignments that were based on whether you were willing to support the leader against all odds or you were supposed to take a stance of fighting the leader by any means necessary even if it meant collaborating with Zanu PF. This toxicity and hatred amongst colleagues left many of us who cannot be cajoled into perennial in-house fighting with no home.
The jostling that had become the order of the day has inevitably brought two main factions where you either swallow hook, line and sinker the machinations of the ever-scheming boys and girls who I call the “See No Evil and Hear No Evil Brigade” and remain committed to centralising decision making in one individual or you had to be on the other side with a grouping of people who will do anything to ensure that they take down the leader by any means necessary even if it means colluding with the evil Zanu PF regime.
However, with the resignation of the leader it seems more factions have been created and I can number them to four or five. The sum of it all is that the toxicity coming from all the factions is sickening and energy draining. These champions of mudslinging continue to make it difficult for individuals who cherish shared responsibilities, as well as values of justice, fairness, equity and meaningful solidarity to belong anywhere.
In all this, we have people amongst fellow comrades who have deliberately and conveniently begun to use the machinations of Zec [Zimbabwe Electoral Commission] and the shenanigans of Tshabangu as an excuse to entrench dictatorship, muzzling of people’s views and opinions all in the name of defending the leader.
It is a given fact that there are many conflict-preneurs in the opposition contingent who have seized every opportunity to malign and alienate others from the project. They remain wolves in sheep’s clothing who have taken it upon themselves to gate keep and frustrate many people out of the party. These pseudo-revolutionaries feed into the fears of the leader to constantly whisper into his ears that there are people who want to wrest leadership from him.
Their end game cannot be understood, their motives cannot be understood, their handlers remain a mystery and I suspect that they are strategically positioned around the leader to ensure that he is in constant fear of a non-existent threat. I wonder how such behaviour can ever win Zimbabwe for change when numbers are constantly and consistently being reduced every day.
In my view, there are many people now who cannot keep up with this madness and who would rather watch from the terraces as the dog-eat-dog situation in the opposition continues unabated. There are many in the trenches who do not subscribe to this mudslinging. They would rather see order prevailing.
Many like me seek to see the movement back on its feet, focused on the task at hand. They want an institution, they want systems, they want things to work, they want the collective voice to return, they wish to see leaders working together, they want to see their leaders being able to co-exist, they don’t expect their leaders to like each other but just to be able to work together. They want to see a platform where issues can be tabled, deliberated freely and have the emerging superior views carrying the day. There are many well-meaning individuals in the opposition that I know who would want to see this happening. They wait for the day when sanity will be restored.
They are waiting for the day when everyone will accept that the “strategic ambiguity” era is over, that strategic ambiguity as a political strategy had more weaknesses than benefits. Leadership entails owning up and accepting that things did not go the way we expected. Confronting such difficult questions of the day will save the opposition and ultimately give the people of Zimbabwe a fighting chance against the Zanu PF regime. The efforts of President Morgan Tsvangirai has surely gone to waste with the way the opposition is being run in this country. May his soul continue to rest in peace.
Let me address some of the issues that I feel have brought us to where we are.
The first thing is to apologise to the people of Zimbabwe for the pretence by many of us that things were working smoothly in their beloved party. I and many of our leaders have willingly been contributing to the mess in the opposition by keeping quiet where we ought to have spoken out, for accepting to be overpowered by a few excitable characters, for elevating a mortal man to the levels of a semi-god who cannot be questioned, who cannot be held accountable, who should think and do everything alone and who should always have his views taken as the superior views of the day. We all did this in the name of wanting to be politically correct. I am part of the many that have aided in the creation of a dictatorship. I apologise and wish to state that I have reached my Damascene moment and will never be found perpetuating such anti-revolutionary tendencies.
I make this apology fully aware that there are many Zimbabweans who are blinded by the desire to want to see the back of Zanu PF and that they will unashamedly support and perpetuate this kind of leadership for expediency. I am also aware of the fact that just because I have met my Damascene moment, it does not automatically follow that everyone should see things in the same manner that I see them now. I raise these issues for posterity. I know for a fact that at this point it may not be clear to everyone but I want the people of Zimbabwe to refer back to this statement five years or 10 years from now and reflect on the issues that I raise today.
I make this statement fully aware that challenging and exposing the excesses of a popular brand will come with its fair share of criticism, name calling and labelling. I do not seek to find favours from anyone. I am doing this for posterity.
At personal level, I have come to the realisation that this is not what I signed up for when I willingly joined the struggle as a green horn teenager and gave myself to the service of the motherland, forgoing all the luxuries of enjoying my young adult life, opportunities in both my academic and professional space that were lost as I pursued this struggle.
My conscience, my Students Union background and my ideological inclination do not in any way allow me to continue to be part and parcel of an excitable army that is creating and perpetuating a new type of dictatorship, a popular dictatorship that conveniently hides behind the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to destroy people’s lives, batter people’s confidence, belittle people and cause emotional and psychological harm to people. I simply refuse. A one-man band that has been given the leeway to transform itself into a fully-fledged dictatorship that does not value consensus building, conflict resolution and collective decision making cannot be tolerated in the 21st century.
Conscious of the fact that our Zimbabwean politics is binary in nature, having weighed the advantages and disadvantages of just wanting to be seen to be politically correct by siding and aligning with the popular character of the day, I have decided to with immediate effect disassociate with partisan politics, by quitting politics and move away from the toxic politics of the day. I retreat into being a private citizen who will have nothing to do with the politics of the day. I will take this time to reconnect with my family and spend more time together as I compensate for the time lost over the years. I will also use this opportunity to pursue other passions.
As I round up, I believe that Zimbabwe requires someone who can bring order and unity that will catapult us to economic, social and political stability. Zimbabwe is in dire need of a unifier, one who should carry the responsibility of uniting people across the political divide and propel this country to meaningful economic development in our lifetime.
Standing high on the shoulders of the departed forefathers of this land who fought fearlessly to establish a unitary, liberated state, the next leader of Zimbabwe should be able to finish off the outstanding business of the liberation struggle which includes economic freedom and full democratisation of the state where the three levers of the state can be given the space to exercise their functions eely. We need a leader who can navigate the complex terrain of power transfer, one who can manage statecraft, one who can assure the military contingent, who can assure the business community, war veterans, women, elderly, who can assure the “selectorates” and the political elites across the political divide, who can give confidence to the judiciary that they are an important and equal arm of the state who should be allowed to freely undertake their work, who can assure the young boys and girls in this country that Zimbabwe can work again.
In short, we need a broadbased meeting of minds that transcends imaginary political lines, generations, tribes, race to make Zimbabwe work again. I find this lacking in Zimbabwe at the moment and I hope that even as I retreat into my shell and embark on life as a private citizen, God will raise one man or woman to take up this task. God Bless Zimbabwe. I thank You.
About the writer: Lovemore Chinoputsa is former CCC deputy secretary for international relations and co-operation.
