Sengezo Tshabangu may have shocked ardent party supporters when he threw his weight behind plans to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s tenure beyond its constitutionally mandated two terms which end in 2028.
The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) self-imposed interim secretary-general, with a handful of the party’s lawmakers in tow, on Sunday visited Mnangagwa’s farm in Kwekwe on a tour the opposition politician said was the “most significant event in the current context of solution-finding, nation-building and consensus”.
“If our presence here improves your stay in power and that makes the people of Zimbabwe happy, then let it be,” Tshabangu gushed in choreographed remarks that were punctuated by the song 2030 ndeya Emmerson.
Sunday’s tour came barely a week after a Tshabangu loyalist said the party would support plans to defer elections to 2030 to allow the implementation of the blueprint, National Development Strategy 2 which runs up to 2030.
The ruling Zanu PF party is canvassing for support to amend the Constitution for Mnangagwa to extend his stay, armed with a resolution made at the party’s people’s conference held in Bulawayo last year.
Mnangagwa has repeatedly said he is a constitutionalist and is not interested in prolonging his stay in power.
Were Tshabangu’s remarks unexpected? They were not after he got control of the CCC on a silver platter and imitiated recalls, a move critics said was meant to donate seats to Zanu PF so that it attains the coveted two-thirds majority in Parliament.
The CCC, once a formidable force, has been fractured into three factions led by Tshabangu, interim president Welshman Ncube and administrator Jameson Timba.
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Tshabangu’s endorsement of the ED2030 plan has triggered a scrutiny of the role of an opposition political party.
The opposition should not just act as a "government-in-waiting", but also check any arbitrary tendencies of the government in power, Sanjukta Banerji Bhattacharya, a former professor of International Relations at Jadavpur University, said.
An effective opposition performs a restraining role vis-à-vis the party in power, preventing it from transgressing its functional limits and simultaneously posing a constant challenge by promising a practical alternative, Bhattacharya said.
An opposition worth its salt will oppose any constitutional amendments intended to serve selfish interests. Cheering on the proposed mutilation of the Constitution is a kiss of death for the opposition formation which midwifed such as process.
This explains why most of the CCC lawmakers rejected the poisoned chalice and stayed away from the tour.
A credible opposition keeps government on its toes and uses the Parliamentary Portfolio Committees to keep government accountable.
Drafters of the Constitution included the clause on term limits in the belief that leadership is a relay where no matter how good a runner one is, he or she is supposed to pass on the baton.
An opposition that sells its soul for 30 pieces of silver is inimical to democracy and becomes an enabler to democratic backsliding, 44 years after independence.
For the ruling Zanu PF party, a pliant opposition is a liability since it needs a strong competitor so that it delivers on its election promises.
