Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Anna Chibamu
THE recent recalls of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MPs and councillors by the party’s “interim secretary general” Sengezo Tshabangu are meant to cement Zanu PF’s power and remove any political opponents in the country, the Zimbabwe Institute for Democracy ZDI has said.
In a report on “The Politics of Recalls – Democratic Fragility and Opposition Vulnerability in Zimbabwe,” ZDI said the recalls not only exposed the fragility of democracy and the vulnerability of the opposition in Zimbabwe but also increased the ruling party’s chances of achieving a two-thirds majority in Parliament, thereby reducing the opposition’s representation in the same.
Last week, the National Assembly speaker Jacob Mudenda and Senate President Mable Chinomona both effected recalls by Tshabangu of 15 MPs and nine Senators respectively as per the constitution.
A letter addressed to Local Government Minister Winston Chitando by Tshabangu also withdrew 17 Councillors citing they were no longer members of the opposition.
However, CCC leader Nelson Chamisa dismissed the recalls made in the “fraudulent letters” saying they were done erroneously.
“Recent recalls have exposed the fragility of democracy and the vulnerability of the opposition in the country. The recalls, which have been effected by the ruling Zanu PF party’s Speaker of Parliament, who is the secretary of legal affairs in its Soviet-style political bureau (Politburo), intends to reduce the opposition’s representation and increase the ruling party’s chances of achieving a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
“The recalls can be theoretically located in the context of a securocrat state-building strategy by the ruling Zanu PF party, which seeks to consolidate its power and eliminate any potential challengers.
“A securocratic state-building strategy is one that prioritizes security over liberty, favours stability over peace, and synthesizes liberal and illiberal precepts to achieve developmental but non-doctrinaire ambitions,” ZDI said.
ZDI added that the strategy uses coercion, manipulation, and patronage to create a loyal and compliant citizenry, while pursuing selective economic reforms and social engineering to project an image of modernity and progress.
“Whereas the recalls may be misconstrued to be a microcosm of internal opposition CCC squabbles, they feed into a broader dual securocratic state consolidation project. That of countering the internal and external legitimacy challenges exposed by the opposition on one hand, and on the other hand weakening the opposition’s power in parliament to pave way to President Mnangagwa’s third term power ambitions. If the court endorses these recalls and Zanu PF wins the by-elections.
“This would enable Zanu PF to amend the constitution, entrench its power without any checks and balances and ultimately give President Emmerson Mnangagwa a third term.
“This appears to be the broader political strategy by Zanu PF’s Mnangagwa faction.’’
The Think Tank also alleged that Mnangagwa wants to remove the two-term presidential term limit enshrined in the Constitution.
“The fact that CCC leadership wrote a letter to the Speaker of Parliament earlier than Tshabangu that sought to prevent unofficial and sporadic recalls and was ignored implies that Zanu-PF is either behind the recalls or conniving with disgruntled CCC individuals to facilitating those recalls to reap the attendant benefits of a fractured and thus weakened opposition.”
According to ZDI, by-elections will likely result in Zanu-PF regaining control of unstable rural constituencies such as Beitbridge West and Lupane East where it lost with a mere 96 and 235 votes respectively.
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