Chamisa led MDC looks like a grouping of selfish activists - Manyenyeni

ZIMBABWE's Movement for Democratic Change led by the 41-year-old Nelson Chamisa needs to act like a responsible opposition and less like a grouping of selfish activists, former Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni has said.

The former Harare Mayor also said the MDC Alliance has lost its founding values and now needs to deal with credibility as well as capacity issues dogging it.

Manyenyeni was Mayor of Harare between 2013 and 2018 representing the opposition MDC and remains an active member of the party.

In a scathing Facebook post, Thursday, Manyenyeni said Zimbabwe remains stuck in a leadership crisis 39 years after majority rule arguing most technocrats have turned into arm-chair critics.

"Us in the opposition have credibility and capacity doubts to clear - having long lost our factory settings," said Manyenyeni.

Under new 41 year-old new leader Nelson Chamisa, Manyenyeni said the MDC needs to act like a responsible opposition.

"We have to look less and less like a grouping of selfish activists but a real government-in-waiting.

"Introspection is hardly ever on the agenda," the former Harare councillor said suggesting there is a possibility for a "third force' that however he argued may not be viable.

Manyenyeni argued respectable Zimbabweans who could help the country extricate itself out of the rut are unwilling to get dirty.

"The professionals and technocrats are arm-chair compatriots. Those who are NEEDED to serve simply leave it to those who are in it for NEED.

"National one-ness and cohesion remain elusive (and) partisan politics remains the only game in town. We are in perpetual election mode- very destructive," the ex-Harare Mayor said.