Even as some in Zimbabwe worry that Mnangagwa is merely a continuation of Mugabe’s administration and express concern about the military’s influence on government, the opposition struggles to come up with a united challenge.
“The time for power struggles is over,” Chamisa told the thousands of MDC-T supporters in the capital, Harare, yesterday.
“Mudzuri and Khupe should unite behind our efforts to remove ZANU-PF.”
Some in Zimbabwe said the opposition’s public displays of discord are disrespectful of Tsvangirai, who was jailed, beaten and accused of treason in his years of resisting Mugabe’s government and even became Prime Minister in an uncomfortable coalition government for a few years.
“One of the most glaring ironies of this moment is that those who fought him are showing him respect while those who fought with him are fighting each other and showing disrespect. Comrades, you are allowing power to get in the way of reason and dignity,” tweeted Alex Magaisa, a law lecturer at Kent University in Britain and former adviser to Tsvangirai.
The upcoming election will be the first without Tsvangirai since 2002. An opposition alliance had endorsed him as its candidate, even as the ailing leader in January said he was “looking at the imminent prospects of us as the older generation leaving the levers of leadership to allow the younger generation to take forward this huge task”.
In the end, the opposition leader made the same mistake that Mugabe did, political analyst Alexander Rusero said: Even as his health deteriorated Tsvangirai failed to “anoint” a successor.
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