Beyond messiah politics, Zimbabweans also need to reflect truthfully on why the State has maintained its hold on power. Part of it is its monopoly of violence, but an even greater factor is the failure by the opposition to organise and build a strong movement at grassroots level. It is also the many lost opportunities along the way – specifically, the lost opportunity to resolve the question of the diaspora vote. Following the GNU, the MDC-T and now CCC speak eloquently about the unconstitutionality of the lack of a diaspora vote, but there was an opportunity during the GNU, where the MDC factions had a majority in Parliament, to prioritise this struggle.
And yet, MDC never tabled a motion or brought a bill before the Parliament (or Cabinet, where they were fully represented) regarding diaspora voting. Even during the drafting stages of the 2013 Constitution, the deadlock was largely on issues around executive powers, not on the diaspora vote. It was on executive powers and Cabinet composition that negotiations deadlocked twice – not on the issue of the vote.
The number of Zimbabweans living in the diaspora is estimated at 5-7 million people. This is equal to the number of people who voted in the recent harmonised election. The fact that the MDC-T, at the height of its legitimacy, didn’t fight hard enough for the diaspora vote. But only now when MDC-T is put out of government, recognised the importance of the issue is reflective of an opposition with misplaced priorities. Sadly, this singular miscalculation on the part of the MDC-T is going to haunt Zimbabwe for a very long time to come.
It helped to consolidate ZANU-PF power and it will be decades before the opposition gets another opportunity to effect changes to the Constitution.
The people of Zimbabwe need to be able to hold opposition accountable if they’re to ever build an effective movement that will unseat the ZANU-PF. They need to build a movement as a collective – one which is not formed in the image of an individual.
They must internalise the words of Argentina-born Cuban revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara who so profoundly posited: “Liberators do not exist – the people liberate themselves”.
By Malaika Lesego Samora Mahlatsi
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