Bruce Zvandasara
There is an African adage which goes, “old habits die hard” which is used to mean that people are more often reluctant to change their way of doing something even if they tried hard to present themselves as having divorced their old self.
Once one becomes accustomed to their belief of habit, it becomes hard to let go the same. On 24 January 2022, Nelson Chamisa and his lieutenants announced the formation of a new party; the Citizens Coalition for Change better known as the CCC. The party prides itself as a new formation different from the MDC and all its splinters—literally breaking away from the Morgan Tsvangirai ideology which they said was toxic.
To further buttress his announcement that CCC was indeed “The New,” Chamisa further disbanded all the structures which he said had a relationship with the past and therefore, a moment would come where citizens’ structures would be announced. Political scientists tried to give their definitions to the newly announced political party attempting to associate it with the MDC-T or MDC-Alliance to which Chamisa and crew claimed their new formation was not linked in any way thus, “Behold the New”.
Fast forward, just four months when people are still trying to figure the head or the tail of the CCC, Chamisa, known in the opposition circle as Cobra strikes as was expected. True character or habits have a way of showing themselves even if oneself tried so hard to hide them—they protrude anyway just like what the Shona saying warned; “rine manyanga hariputirwe”.
During Tsvangirai’s time as the leader of the MDC-T, he spent so much time airborne than with the structures of electorate in Zimbabwe. He was always airborne with his trusted lieutenants such as Tendai Biti and young Chamisa visiting foreign governments in search of financial support. On 24 May 2022, Chamisa was invited by the Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria to discuss Zimbabwean political affairs. The planning, the invites, the venue and even the delegates were all done in secrecy under the banner “highly confidential don’t share” as Chamisa was going to be guest speaker. The selection criteria by that Embassy of the people to attend the dinner was conspicuous as only hostile diplomats and opposition leaders in the SADC region were the only invited. One wonders what discussion was being held behind closed doors.
It’s suffice to say that recently, a plot to effect a coup de tat in Eswathini by foreign governments using a handful opposition elements and activists against King Muswathi was exposed. The operation which is dubbed Eswathini Winter revolution showed that a series of covert meetings and planning were carried out in foreign countries planning on the hostile takeover of a sovereign government. Therefore, it is not surprising that Chamisa and his lieutenants who pride themselves as the new, are not different from the Tsvangirai days where their party was more of a project to unconstitutionally remove ZANU PF.
Chamisa’s “Behold the New” is now showing its true colours of what it is and intends on achieving—coaxing hostile foreign governments to financially support their party and no one knows what he (Chamisa} is promising them. With European governments, it’s always a quid pro quo type of agreement.
The madness in hostile foreign governments in trying to influence a regime change agenda in Zimbabwe through political operations fronted by Civil Society Organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations, activists and opposition political parties should not go unchecked. In international law, the Norwegian government’s attempt to interfere in Zimbabwe’s internal politics is tantamount to a declaration of war. Yes Chamisa is an individual who should enjoy all the freedoms enshrined in the country’s Constitution but his freedoms ends when he collaborates and collude with foreign governments to interfere in the country’s politics. To quote Professor Jonathan MOYO, “Each political party that is funded or capacitated by any foreign government to contest elections or grab political power is by definition treacherous and ipso facto, an enemy of the people.”
