Chamisa’s Agenda 2020 address to the nation

2. The Parliamentary Agenda

Fellow Zimbabweans, as part of Agenda 2020, we will deepen our role in Parliament. In 2019, our Members of Parliament continued to work hard under difficult conditions on behalf of the citizens we represent.

Our refusal to recognise illegitimacy has not compromised our mandate in Parliament. The state propaganda machine will have you believing that the MDC has abandoned the peoples’ cause. The reality is we continue to fight for transparency and accountability.

Fighting illegitimacy does not undermine our work. In all things the needs of the citizens come first. Restoring legitimacy and credibility to our executive is key among them. True change demands both electoral and performance legitimacy.

We are not walking out on our work. The work of our portfolio committees continues without forgetting our longer term goal of fighting for reform.

We fought a spirited battle against the adoption of the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act. This is just another POSA, if not worse in some aspects. We stood on principle. We will work harder and smarter to highlight our Member of Parliament’s contribution in various committees and portfolios.

In Parliament, we will fight even harder for the Diaspora vote. Not only was this promised to this nation, but it is the right of every citizen. My opposite number in Zanu PF made various assurances while on the election campaign trail and even after in 2018 that once elections were concluded, mechanisms would be put in place to ensure the diaspora vote. To date, no steps have been taken to make this a reality. They are quick to look for diaspora money and skills but show no interest in giving the diaspora their right to truly influence the direction of Zimbabwe.

This is simply another of many examples of a tragic and failed leadership.

The party will use parliament as a theatre of struggle for a better life for Zimbabweans, struggle for democracy.

We will strengthen our debating capacity, ensuring that we have more motions that are people-centred and focus on peoples every day issues above all else.

We’ll build the capacities of our MPs through a parliamentary research unit to improve the quality of debates and contributions.

We will introduce performance scorecards for our MPs and mandatory regular Constituency Feedback.

Meetings will be implemented to ensure that parliamentary debate is truly representative of the communities we serve.

I am calling each and every one of you to action in your community. We have no government. The development of our communities is now left to us.

Get in touch with your local councillor, find your Member of Parliament. If there are community interventions you are interested in supporting, get involved. None but ourselves will reverse the under-development that our country continues to face. We cannot outsource this function to development partners. We can work with them, but there can be no development of Zimbabwe without us as Zimbabweans determining and driving our own agenda.

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