Munangagwa's Criteria For Picking Chamisa is Unheard of in the Commonwealth
What Commonwealth standards? Let me give the example of a neighbour. The DA has been the official opposition in South Africa for a long time.
In 2009 the leader of the DA, Hellen Zille, chose to become the Premier of Western Cape provinces. That is the equivalent of governor.
She resigned her position as MP. The position of leader of the opposition in parliament was then taken over by Lindiwe Mazibuko a then serving MP. When Lindiwe Mazibuko resigned as MP the role of leader of the opposition was taken over by Mmusi Maimane who at the time was not leader of the DA. This demonstrates that leader of the opposition is current member of parliament.
In other Commonwealth countries the situation is the same. In Canada Andrew James Scheer is current member of parliament. In the United Kingdom the current Leader of the Opposition is Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, who was elected to the leadership of the Labour Party on 12 September 2015. He is also the serving member of parliament for Islington North. In New Zealand, Simon Bridges, current leader of the opposition is MP for Tauranga. In Australia William Richard Shorten is elected MP for Maribymong and elected leader of the Labour Party of Australia.
I will not mention Commonwealth countries like Rwanda and Uganda where leaders of the opposition are regularly thrown into jail.
The leader of the opposition is elected by the parliamentary caucus
Another very important factor is that in the countries I mentioned above, the leader of the opposition is elected by the parliamentary caucus of the opposition from among themselves. They are not nominated by the ruling party.
Normally the caucus elect the leader of the largest opposition party. That is because if a leader, during an election fail to win a seat, or in some cases fail to lead the party to victory, they resign. In the case of South Africa where the leader of the opposition chose another government post serving MPs were given the opportunity after being elected by parliamentary caucus.
Therefore when Munangagwa talks about leader of the opposition reserved for Chamisa, it is just dirty patronage, not a commonwealth standard. Why not give the opposition caucus in Zimbabwe parliament the opportunity to elect whoever they wish, which is the true commonwealth standard.
Chamisa is not even elected leader of the MDC Alliance. He grabbed power with the help of a violent youth militia, The Vanguard, such that most of the very same people Munangagwa is seeking to convince he is democratic, stopped or reduced sponsorship of the MDC. The British in particular were clearly not impressed with Chamisa which is why they swung towards Munangagwa. Now Munangagwa wants to go and collect garbage that has been thrown away by the British and use it to impress them.
It serves to demonstrate to those Commonwealth countries that pioneered the concept of leader of the opposition that Munangagwa and his foot-soldiers do not understand what they are talking about. Ndi vana tongoindawo. They are just band-wagoners.
If they are not band-wagoners then it is nothing but a crude and unintelligent attempt at deception.
It is certainly deception to claim that Zimbabwe will be allowed back into the Commonwealth merely because a leader of the opposition has been allowed a slot at the pigsty trough by being given government perks. The Animal Farm story does not change simply because of one pig.
Britain is currently willing to jump into bed with anything because of the pending divorce from Europe
Western countries that pushed for Zimbabwe's expulsion did so because they were peeved over the property rights of their kith and kin being taken. Farms and mineral rights. Have those property rights been restored? If anything recent American renewal of sanctions shows that little has changed in Western policy towards Zimbabwe.
The way the leader of the opposition issue has been handles betrays a shallow understanding not only of democracy, but of global politics as well.
The only saving grace Munangagwa might have is that Britain is currently willing to jump into bed with anything because of the pending divorce from Europe.
Sexist and Tribalist
For me the move to pluck Chamisa out of political oblivion and hand him government perks, also reveals a sexist and tribalist trend in Munangagwa's behaviour. Soon after the death of Tsvangirai, Munangagwa rushed to hand over party disbursement funds meant for the MDC-T to Chamisa.
He deliberately sidelined Thokozani Khupe who is a woman and ethnic Kalanga. She was the democratically elected vice president to Tsvangirai in the MDC-T. Apart from that the leadership contest of the MDC-T had not been legally settled. A sign that Chamisa would have lost that contest is that eventually he chose to form his own party, the MDC Alliance. He has not returned the money that he unfairly grabbed from the MDC-T with the help of Munangagwa led Zanu-PF.
Now Ngwena is rushing to hand over perks to Chamisa. By the Commonwealth standard he is touting, those perks should go to Thabitha Khumalo, another woman and ethnic Ndebele. However the President of Zimbabwe seems intent on dribbling past Thabitha the same way he dribbled past Thokozani.
