CCC leader Nelson Chamisa said that President Emmerson Mnangagwa will have a seat in Zimbabwe’s 10th Parliament as Leader of the Opposition.
In 2018, Mnangagwa offered Chamisa a similar post as his administration was confident that Zimbabwe would be readmitted into the Commonwealth, something which has not materialised five years later. Mnangagwa said:
Under our Commonwealth parliamentary democracy, the opposition is recognised; we recognise the leader of the opposition in Parliament. This is what we are going to do ourselves.
A constitutional amendment was reportedly considered by Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, but Chamisa rejected the proposal, insisting that his “victory” in the 2018 presidential race was stolen.
Addressing his supporters at a rally in the Chirumanzu South constituency where he had gone to drum up support for the CCC parliamentary candidate Patrick Cheza, Chamisa said:
We are going to deal with nation-building, we want to unite people. We want to celebrate national events as a country.
Mnangagwa will be the leader of the opposition in Parliament starting on the 24th.
A leader of the opposition is not an enemy of the state, he is an extension because the government is not one side, it is two sides, the opposing side and the governing side but these comrades of mine do not know that.
Chamisa also promised a 15-member Cabinet of performance-based ministers to curb over-spending by the State. He said:
Do not choose darkness over light. Governance is the second thing that we are going to fix.
We no longer want MPs and Ministers who get elected so as to abuse public funds, we want people who know that Ministers are about developing this country.
We will have just 15 Ministers, the moment we get more than those then it will simply be a ‘jobs for the boys’ situation.
Let us have a mean and lean government that is accountable, where one who fails leaves.
In 2018, Mnangagwa narrowly avoided a presidential election rerun against Chamisa after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) declared him the winner with 50.8% of the vote.
More: Pindula News