Whither CCC and Zim opposition politics?

Pondai B. Shozhera

It appears there is nothing to write home about with opposition politics in Zimbabwe. At a time when you feel the generation of leaders that are coming in might change things because they are young, that when you discover how wrong you were to hallucinate at the sound of promises that may only be made in heaven.

The death of founding president of the Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, on Valentine’s Day in 2018, appears to have marked the death of the labour-based party.

What followed has been phenomenal leaps from crisis to crisis as the MDC-T shredded whatever was left of constitutionalism.

Pro-Nelson Chamisa thugs almost literally tore Thokozani Khupe apart at Humanikwa Village in Buhera at the funeral of the late MDC leader, threatening to “kill” her.

As the only elected vice president of the opposition party, Thokozani Khupe was supposed to be acting leader of the MDC-T.

However, Chamisa took over the leadership of the party, which he lost to Douglas Mwonzora, forcing the former to form the Citizens Coalition for Change.

The CCC absorbed some formations that had split from the Tsvangirai-led party earlier – Welshman Ncube’s MDC, the People’s Democratic Party fronted by Tendai Biti and Job Sikhala’s MDC-99.

At the point of the MDC Alliance in 2018, the major problem was that the alliance itself was shaky, with individual party leaders therein believing they had brought in more political capital than the rest of the partners.

At a time when they were supposed to be more united as they had all been part of the original MDC, they squabbled over petty differences at the expense of the coalition.

It is sad to note that most of the differences in the opposition camp are a result of personality differences between leaders, which are worsened by those who surround them, their praise-singers, who are sycophantic and greedy.

They insulate leaders from reality by not telling them the truth. Instead, they tell them what they want to hear, showering them with undeserving praises thus inflating leaders egos.

This has been a recipe for disaster even in the ruling Zanu PF. In fact, it is a recipe for disaster and creates and manufactures monsters out of mere mortal human beings.

Leaders should come and go no matter how good they are. That weakness has proved to be Zimbabwe’s undoing as the late former president, Robert Mugabe overstayed.

Today, the CCC is a mere shadow of what it was around the time of the Harmonised Elections in 2023, with leaders who failed to self-introspect and see their weaknesses.

As a result, we have seen grudges devouring the grit and steel out of the CCC. The splinter factions have been a consequence of unbridled ambition, greed and selfishness.

Supporters must not create demigods out of their leaders because they are only human after all. Instead of respecting the value of collective wisdom and the wealth of diversity, some leaders have followed the diktats of narrow, personal whims and forced them onto the people as party resolutions.

This is the tragedy that befell the CCC as strategic ambiguity failed dismally. Although Chamisa has tried to retrace his steps into relevance, he has not found people swallowing everything hook, line and sinker.

After posting: “My vision and mandate is to RADICALLY TRANSFORM Zimbabwe into a fully developed and advanced modern nation. This, so that the citizens can live in a democratic and great republic that is more diverse, united, safe, free, just, tolerant, peaceful and sustainably prosperous”, one X user has not been kind with the former CCC leader.

Gwarazimba @clive_bhebhe wrote in response: “Haa mukoma zveku poster ma dreams izvi its for the newbies vachangopinda mu politics. From you tingadai tavakungowona action chete chete. Instead of empty rhetoric, you should admit kuti strategic ambiguity failed and let people know we have to build from scratch. Start raising funds now! Without money you will never remove madinga awo. That's a fact! Just observe what’s happening in South Africa at the moment how rich folks are actively involved funding opposition parties. Money talks baba.”

Bla B @bmusonza weighs in with his X post on collective vision and transformative leadership where he equates imposition of individual visions as dictatorship.

“It should be a collective vision boss. Transformative leadership is not about leaders imposing their individual visions. Imposition of individual visions is dictatorship. Transformative leadership involves inspiring and motivating followers to achieve a collective vision that goes beyond individual interests.

“Best transformative leaders are those with effective positive influence. Transformative leadership focuses on empowering others, fostering innovation, and creating positive change within nations, organisations or communities.

“A collective vision is essential in aligning everyone's efforts toward a common goal, fostering collaboration, and driving meaningful progress. Together, transformative leadership and a collective vision can ignite passion, drive, and commitment among team members to create lasting impact and change,” Bla B writes.

In a past interview, Democratic Working Group head of political affairs, Dr Wurayayi Zembe argues that most leadership fails the moment it manifests a departure from set objectives to collective thought.

“The people must own the idea. The abandonment of collective objectives and thought, where the issue arises of believing in individual arises outside group activities, the hero-worshipping mentality has been the biggest problem, starting with Edgar Tekere’s Zimbabwe Unity Movement and is inherent in Zanu PF,” said Dr Zembe.

The ruling Zanu PF, however, is aware of these internal weaknesses in Zimbabwe’s opposition and capitalises on it to remain in power. There are too many squabbles within opposition ranks and these have led them into losing elections as well as people’s confidence.