Opposition hypocrisy on succession plan

The unwarranted mounting pressure from opposition parties and some ZANU PF rejects for President Robert Mugabe to announce his succession plan is quite ill-advised.

It is mind boggling why opposition politicians are keen to face President Mugabe's successor in the 2018 harmonised elections.

How could some ignoble opposition politicians, clergymen and former ZANU PF mandarins such as Godfrey Tsenengamu call on President Mugabe to appoint a successor, claiming that failure to do so would muddle the country's economic fortunes.

Could it be that the opposition parties are once again afraid to face the unconquerable icon of Africa in future polls hence they are pushing for a weaker candidate to compete against?

Yes, they are scared of being drubbed once again given the overwhelming support the President has received during the Million Man March.

It is also unheard of that the succession debate of one party could be initiated and determined by its political rivals.

Where do the opposition politicians find the moral authority to prescribe a succession plan for ZANU PF?
It is not the business of opposition critics to guide the succession discourse in their rival parties as if there are clear succession demarcations in their own parties.

For what we know, all opposition parties have not had any leadership renewal which they are prescribing for ZANU PF.

In MDC-T, there is no succession plan as Tsvangirai continues to literally be the party's face since its inception yet it is seeking to squeeze a succession plan from ZANU PF.

 The same can be said of the MDC led by Professor Welshamn Ncube, Professor Lovemore Madhuku's NCA, Simba Makoni's Mavambo/Dawn/Kusile and many others, including quasi-political organisations such as Raymond Majongwe's Progressive Teachers Union (PTUZ), where the founding leaders have remained perched at the top and unchanged.

The point coming out here is that all political parties, including ZANU PF and the opposition, have not experienced any leadership renewal and none of them have announced any clear succession plans.

What this means therefore is that the opposition parties have no moral latitude to prod ZANU PF to unveil a succession plan or effect leadership renewal when they do not have similar plans.

Above all, ZANU PF has its own vibrant constitution that is guiding it in all matters including the succession issue.
The ZANU PF constitution stipulates that leadership issues are deliberated at its Congress meeting.
So if the latest ZANU PF Congress has not raised the issue of succession and proceeded to vote for President Mugabe as its First Secretary and Presidential Candidate for future elections, no one else has a right to impose the succession topic on the party, worse still its political nemesis.
The message one gets from the opposition calls is that they are scared top once again compete with President Mugabe in future elections hence their agenda setting attempts to armtwist ZANU PF to replace the President.

They want the party to drop its reliable and unbeaten horse for some untested candidate, which in political strategy is rather far-fetched and would definitely not found audience with ZANU PF.

The President has already indicated that he will stand for elections in 2018, a position fully supported by all wings of the Party, which means there are no plans to replace him hence the need for a successor falls aside.

In addition, it is a blatant lie for the opposition activists to claim that the alleged absence of a succession plan in ZANU PF is scaring away investors, for we have witnessed truckloads of investors of all nationalities flocking into the country and establishing businesses.

Will I be lying if I say that KFC, a US investor, has established outlets in the country despite all predictions of gloom and doom?

More so, we have US brands such as Pepsi that are already on the ground establishing a bottling company in the country at a time the country has no succession plan.

Reference can also be made to other ongoing investments by Samsung and people such as Aliko Dangote.

All these investments are taking place under the guidance of President Robert Mugabe, without any reference to a succession plan, so why are opposition critics pushing for a succession plan as if it is the panacea to our economic challenges?

Nevertheless, it is clear that all this push for a succession plan in ZANU PF is just a desperate regime ploy to force change of leadership in ZANU PF after the realization that President Mugabe cannot be stampeded from power by regime change designs.