ZIMBABWE’S opposition political parties have shown a troubling comfort in remaining in opposition for the past 25 years, and the greatest losers are the ordinary citizens who had hoped for meaningful change in governance and their daily lives.
These remarks were made by social advocate and political analyst Dr Abigail Mupambi, who expressed concern over the stagnation of opposition politics in Zimbabwe.
The aggressive opposition movement emerged in 1999 with the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), then led by Morgan Tsvangirai, which posed a serious challenge to the ruling ZANU-PF until Tsvangirai’s death in 2017.
“The issue here is we seem to have an opposition that is comfortable to remain as opposition. That has been the notion for the past 25 years. Now we’ve reached a point where we can’t even see the tyres of that very same opposition – they are fast melting into something else. But the biggest losers are the ordinary people in the constituencies who have invested so much in the opposition,” Mupambi said.
She called on opposition parties to reform and present themselves as viable alternatives capable of governing and improving the lives of Zimbabweans.
“The plea and the lobby is for the opposition to shape up – to at least offer some help or alternative, to show people that they have an appetite for one day governing or providing a path that can change lives. For the record, people are not worried about which positions political parties hold – they simply hope their lives will improve.”
Mupambi added that if opposition parties continue to show no direction or ambition to govern, they might as well join ZANU-PF and influence policy from within.
“They should influence policies and direction that can help improve the state of affairs. I’m speaking as a social advocate, lobbying from where people have been expecting and waiting, sacrificing so much, and yet nothing has come out. We need an opposition that is ready to reform itself and unite the people to offer better alternatives,” she said.
Source – Byo24News
