AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: WRITING ON THE WALL FOR THE OPPOSITION
Former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirayi and Former President Robert Mugabe |
Robert Mugabe’s
resignation as President of Zimbabwe on 21 November 2017 signaled the end of
more than just his own era in politics. It cast a grave shadow and ominous
portent for the viability of opposition politics in general, and that of the
MDC-T and its leader in particular. Robbed of the main subject of its critique
and model for antithesis, the MDC-T finds itself trapped by the decades’ long
portrayal of their leader as the only viable alternative to Robert
Mugabe.
Activist donning the Mugabe must go slogan |
The Mugabe must
go mantra is also evidence that Robert Mugabe’s incumbency was not
just unifying for his own ZANU PF party. It also served as a national
convergence point for members of the opposition. To the extent that members of
ZANU PF were willing to rally behind Robert Mugabe, even endorsing his
candidature for the 2018 election, members of the opposition were also willing
to rally around Morgan Tsvangirayi and overlook legitimate questions about his
leadership style. For a long time, it seemed the duality of unity around and
against Mugabe would mean his demise would lead to an implosion in ZANU PF,
thereby making the opposition the next bona fide government.
This was anchored in the belief that ZANU PF could not rally around any other
leader as they had done under Mugabe; too many interests had emerged which
could not be held together without him. Rather ironically, it was when one of
those interests was challenged from within (the military) that ZANU PF swiftly
executed a party and national reset and coalesced around a new leader. Thus, by
way of internal party strife, the outcome which the opposition hoped for, a
chaotic post-Mugabe ZANU PF, was averted; whilst that which they had clamored
for, Mugabe must go, was
achieved and with hardly any need for their inclusion.
A joint sitting of parliament celebrates upon the announcement that Robert Mugabe had resigned as President. |
This leaves the MDC-T to
their anti-Mugabeism strategy of ‘‘chinja maitiro guqula
izenzo.’ The MDC-T had a chance to effect a change of behavior when it
was in the inclusive government and participated in the constitution making
process. The constitution was the one tool which could have protected their
interests beyond their life in the inclusive government. In spite of the
introduction of an expanded declaration of rights and new constitutional
commissions, they chose to retain an all-powerful presidency, the central
feature which had long been denounced by civics under the banner of the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). The introduction of a two
term limit, whilst laudable, is only concerned with the politics of entry and exit
and not significant reduction of presidential powers. This suggests that the
MDC-T was more concerned with Mugabe’s exit (Mugabe must go) than a
change of his governance style (chinja maitiro/guqula izenzo); an
outcome which internal ZANU PF machinations have, in any event,
delivered.
New President, Emmerson D.Mnangagwa on the occasion of his inauguration |
The opposition now faces
a new national and ZANU PF president. He is not the same personification of
years of bitterness and frustration and the MDC-T has publicly stated that his ideas for economic recovery mirror their own blueprint. Whilst it is undeniable that President
Mnangagwa was for a long time Robert Mugabe’s right hand man in government, his
current place in the public imagination leans more towards the man who got rid
of, rather than the man who aided, Robert Mugabe. The national
sentiment is not that of bitter disappointment but cautious and hopeful
optimism. The outcry over President Mnangagwa’s cabinet selection points to the
high expectations people have from his administration, his historical ties to
Mugabe notwithstanding. To the extent that the opposition has to make
the case that the new President is only a new face to the same old system, they
are faced with the same dilemma as the Patriotic Front during the days of
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. Unlike the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia era, the Mnangagwa
administration has political and legal legitimacy and has been embraced by the
community of nations, putting paid to such an argument.
Both Robert Mugabe and
Morgan Tsvangirayi rose organically through institutional structures, and both
grew in stature to the point that they almost personalized their respective
political parties. Portrayed as the symbols of the past and the future, they
almost became the ying and the yang to the
liberal and conservative blocks of Zimbabwean politics. The demise of Robert
Mugabe ends with it the efficacy of this strategy of personal antithesis. Much
like the NCA which blurred into obscurity once the new constitution they had
long campaigned for was delivered, the MDC-T may be stepping into oblivion now
that their inimitable Mugabe must go mantra cannot be used to
energize an essentially moribund electoral campaign.
David T Hofisi is a
human rights lawyer from Zimbabwe and a doctoral candidate at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison. He writes in his personal capacity
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