Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa says the country has slipped from being a one-party state to a one-family State under President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Chamisa, who in January quit the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), the party he helped form, alleging infiltration by ZANU PF agents, said a multi-party democracy is healthy for the country. Said Chamisa (via NewZimbabwe.com):
Anybody must support their own party. Changing political parties must be like having one government after the other. Just like in Ghana, just like in Botswana.
Let us change political parties like we are changing diapers not to have this thing where it is like taboo, a one-party State.
We must have a multiparty State. In fact, we have even gone further. We are worse off, it is no longer a one-party State, it is a one-man State, one-family State. That cannot be. We must not have that, we can’t be that.
Mnangagwa has appointed his son Kudakwashe David as the Deputy Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, and his nephew Tongai as the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry.
Mnangagwa is also accused of allowing the First Lady Auxillia, who is often referred to by State media as “Her Excellency” and “Mother of the Nation”, to embark on international business engagements on behalf of the Government of Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Chamisa asserted that ZANU PF has failed to deliver real independence for Zimbabweans, 44 years after the end of settler minority rule. He said:
Independence must be about our dignity. There is no independence when you are naked. There is no independence when you have nothing to your name. We must create wealth as a nation.
We must regain our status amongst the family of nations. Independence cannot be when millions of Zimbabweans are scattered everywhere, dotted around the capitals of the world seeking employment, opportunities and greener pastures. Independence must have a new meaning.
Zimbabweans are suffering and any public address that does not speak to the suffering of Zimbabweans and acknowledge that citizens are suffering is deceitful, delusional and mendacious.
The opposition has been in disarray since Chamisa quit CCC, with some reports suggesting that the party has split into four factions frantically trying to get State funds under the Political Parties (Finance) Act [Chapter 2:11].
Political observers say the opposition in its current form cannot challenge ZANU PF amid reports that some ruling party members are pushing for the scrapping of presidential term limits to enable Mnangagwa to run for a third presidential term.
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