Source: Zim opposition must start thinking, again – DailyNews Live
STAFF WRITER 10 December 2017
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s opposition political parties, especially the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – who have been in the
trenches for the past several years trying to unseat former president
Robert Mugabe and his party – must be panicking over the latest
developments in the country.
Mugabe – their longtime adversary – was booted from power in a military
intervention that put him under house arrest on November 15.
While military takeovers have never been supported the world over, the
Zimbabwean version was from a different mould.
It had the support of long-suffering Zimbabweans who were keen to see
Mugabe’s back, especially when he seemed to support his ambitious wife
Grace’s march to the throne.
What happened with the army takeover may have been the beginning of the
internal transformation of Zanu PF. This reinvention, if it is amply
supported by evident results on the ground, especially in the form of a
significant improvement in people’s lives, may be difficult to beat.
At the end of the day, it is the people who matter in winning any election
not misdirected eliticism that we have seen in the opposition fold in
recent times.
Criticism of the new dispensation under President Emmerson Mnangagwa
without reason may lead to the MDC losing the people. The new government’s
latest approach to the country’s challenges has been applauded although it
may require some bit of time. The reduction of unpopular police
checkpoints – which had become too many – must have come as a relief to
Zimbabweans.
Regeneration of the police force, especially those in the traffic section,
may take ages as it had become synonymous with corruption.
Mnangagwa’s Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa – whose many attempts at
reviving Zimbabwe’s economy hit snags with an uncompromising boss in
Mugabe, has gone back to those very issues his former boss had thrown out
like reduction of Cabinet, revisiting the unpopular indigenisation law,
ghost workers and re-engagement efforts among other measures that will
definitely find the support of the majority of Zimbabweans who are keen to
see an improvement of the lives of the country’s citizens.
Industry’s revival is key and queues must disappear from the banks, and
Mnangagwa and his team may after all get the people’s support.
These are the issues the opposition has been running with all these years.
They therefore urgently need to go back to the drawing board and come up
with workable alternatives.
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