A No Vote to a weak opposition is not a Vote for No change

It will be impossible to vote the ruling Party out of government if the opposition political parties continues with current weaknesses, confusion, incompetence and failure to inspire all Zimbabweans or provided a radical change as evidenced by their poor performance in some parliamentary by elections and last year's election.

Many people wish that current opposition had never existed. They wish the whole thing and its founder leaders would go away/renewed and be forgotten. A vote for this kind of opposition will not change things just as radically as a vote for them.

Every bad  legislation that has attacked the poor, the unemployed and every policy that has ensured that it is only the poor who have paid the price of economic decline caused by poor governance, corruption , economic and social vandalism -  none of these things have been attended to by the opposition, so why should they vote for them. Opposition leaders should never relax but to offer solid, competent checks and balances to the government, if their very existence was to be meaningful.

It is entirely up to the opposition to market themselves and clearly explain to the electorate what they intended to do when elected into power. No politician requires a visit to the moon to understand the challenges and weaknesses faced by the opposition parties in our country. Take for example; we have government officials who are engaged in campaigns for positions at the expense of delivering services.

This is indeed a source of worry given that not even one opposition leaders has condemned this punishable negation of duty. Opposition must familiarize with people and their needs in all parts of the country so as to fully understand the plight of the people cause by misplaced priorities. Take for example as Zimbabwe Unemployed People's Association and National Economic Champions, we are aware, that despite having  opposition, children in rural areas still must walk more than 7KM to get to the nearest secondary or primary schools.

These children brush shoulders with death daily by crossing extremely dangerous bridges and rivers. Take for example children from Lukukwe Line in ward 18 under Mguza district and Lubinda under Tsholotsho district are exposed to these life threatening conditions.

We are told that some schools in Nhlabathi have collapsed classes and children have no choice but to put their lives at risk just to get basic education.

A weak, visionless and uninspiring opposition has let these children down, compromised democracy and failed to understand the needs of our people and their vital role as opposition. They are toothless, losing their position to offer effective checks and balances. We know that the rural vote usually changes the complexion of any elections hence the need for the opposition to understand the needs of the people by conducting holistic community need assessments.

This will also help in dealing with issues of voter apathy, voter fatigue to identify the circumstances which continue to influence such costly tendencies.  While doing this, opposition political parties must urgently put their houses in order especially with issues involving top leadership and direction of their respective parties. Failure to attend to this, voting against opposition will mean voting for change of direction, leadership and vision in the opposition itself.

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Reply-To: ZUPA The Presidium at thepresidiumzupa@yahoo.co.uk