Narrating Organic Zimbabwean Opposition Politics.

Takura Zhangazha

Monday 27 May 2024

Narrating Organic Zimbabwean Opposition Politics.

By Takura Zhangazha*

I got asked about the future of Zimbabwean opposition politics.  It was an abstract conversation.  But one in which I winced once or twice because I am also a founder member of the then mainstream opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)  

This question hurt more because recently I met current opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) at a local hotel.  They were peers during the formative stages of the mainstream opposition MDC.  Either as former student leaders, trade unionists or former school teachers in remote areas.

So I had a moment of reflection. I remembered how we started with the constitutional reform movement.  How we moved from elitist boardroom politics to people centered mobilization.  How we against the advise of our parents and guardians we sought to lay claim to a democratic change agenda for Zimbabwe. 

We did not end there. 

 We followed the leadership of the then Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and pursued a left leaning ideological framework of seeking social and economic justice in what was called ‘Beyond ESAP’.  The latter being a World Bank sponsored economic structural adjustment programme (ESAP).  One which eventually de-industrialised Zimbabwe and a decent number of Southern African countries due to neoliberal economic policies that worshipped and still do so at the altar of the ‘free market’. 

We struggled and we lost a number of comrades during both our constitutional reform struggle as well as the one that led to the formation of what we initially referred to as the “Working People’s Party’ the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). 

And perhaps I might sound somewhat repetitive in my previous blogs/write -ups, the movement got highjacked by the same forces that in our people centered way we were trying to fight.  Much to the advantage of the then and still ruling Zanu Pf party.  

Whereas we were fighting neoliberal and capitalist imperialism, we got trapped in the framework of seeking allies from those that were our apparent ideological enemies.  Indeed we needed the material support but our then leadership took to that assistance like ducks to water.  And regrettably never looked back. 

As young activists with our own ideological clarity, we began to disagree with the the opposition leadership.  They also demonstrated their materialistic power by sidelining us and embarking on populist campaigns’ against anyone who differed with their views.  At some point their views became cultist and we were left shocked at the fact that comrades we had come so far with could act in specifically un-ideological, unhistorical ways.

A number of us took it in stride.  We knew the global forces that were against a left leaning opposition political movement in Zimbabwe.  All they wanted was a ‘colour revolution’ of pots and pans that would make us as a country, with hindsight, the equivalent of present day Libya.

We dodged that bullet and insisted by the time we had the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mediated Global Political Agreement (GPA)  that Zimbabwe was not a Southern African territory for the then trending neoliberal interventionism international relations strategy of George Bush and Tony Blair.  The African Union and SADC really helped with this via Jakaya Kikwete, Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo. 

By the time the GNU period was over with an abrupt election in 2013, we knew that we were in trouble.  We had been defeated electorally by the ruling Zanu Pf party.  We also had a new constitution with clauses that gave way to internal power transition processes within the ruling party and tragically we also lost the mainstream opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirayi.

Because of multiple interests in the political opposition after the GNU we had to encounter the ‘big man syndrome’.  Everyone and anyone who was in the GNU began to claim bragging rights about either the dollarization of the economy or essentially keeping the peace.  But these explanations were not necessarily for the people of Zimbabwe.

  They were for the neoliberal comrades of the global north and former commercial farmers who had changed the structure and focus of the movement.

What then happened is that post Tsvangirai, in keeping with what is referred to as “Millenial Capitalism” the MDC political opposition party morphed into an uncomfortable cultism. It is one of the oddest moments in which I encountered religion and politics taking on a shallow populist trait to the extent that I remembered the Biblical phrase, “ Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar”.

The key issue however remains what is the future of Zimbabwean opposition politics? It can can be answered in three ways.

The first being the most obvious.  Opposition politics is about internal organization and sharing of political responsibility. 

 Just like we used to do with the Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) an organization that shaped a decent number of us politically.  If you do not have internal and democratic accountability, you will fail in your long term political objectives.

The second being that populism helps significantly.  But it is not enough because as in its nature, it remains ephemeral (temporary).  It is almost like trying to remember the last Jah Prayzah song and not, again remembering it. 

Thirdly is the fundamental question of ideology.  Recently a comrade laughed at me calling me a socialist and thought I would balk at the labelling.  I laughed back and insisted I am a socialist.  The future of Zimbabwe’s opposition lies in the clarity of its ideological approach to issues.  We are not in the United Kingdom or the United States of America where political traditions are based on slavery and colonialism .

The future of Zimbabwe’s political opposition remains a balance between the past and the present.  With a firm view of the future. 

*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)   

Takura Zhangazha at 07:56