Zim opposition parties in disarray

The chaos bedevilling opposition political parties is indicative of their failure to genuinely grasp the aspirations of ordinary Zimbabweans, analysts have said.

Opposition parties have been accused of pursuing selfish and foreign agendas at the expense of the national interest, and that is why most of their internal squabbles are triggered by control of donor money.

Observers added that as such, Zanu-PF was unlikely to have any strong challenger in the 2018 elections.

The largest opposition, MDC-T, is in the throes of a split along factions led by party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and another led by secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti.

Factional leaders have suspended and expelled each other and the matter is likely to head to the courts for resolution; something which will take time, money and energy that MDC-T do not have, analysts point out.

The unravelling split is reminiscent of the one in 2005 when then secretary-general Professor Welshman Ncube accused Mr Tsvangirai of being dictatorial and using violence against opponents, allegations that again have been raised against him by the Biti-led faction.

Another party, the newly-formed National Constitutional Assembly, may have suffered a stillbirth after its information director Mr Blessing Vava and another senior official Mr Takura Zhangazha left just four months after its formation.

Mr Job Sikhala abandoned his own MDC-99 for the NCA, before hitching with Mr Tsvangirai.

Prof Ncube's MDC formation has also been hit by a spate of defections to Zanu-PF and MDC-T.

"The opposition political movement in Zimbabwe has always been dead, the reason being that they were never genuine opposition political parties. They have always been willing tools of foreign and imperialist interests that do not resonate well with the ordinary Zimbabweans. The fights we are witnessing are mainly to do with donor money and unless they identify with the ordinary people, our struggle for independence and self-determination then they will never find any following in the country," political analyst Mr Gabriel Chaibva said.

He added: "These parties have been glued by money; the whole lot of them. They do not really have anything tangible to offer the people and now that the donors are taking away their money we are witnessing these fights."

An academic and political observer with close links to MDC-T lamented; "There is nothing that will come out of the MDC-T with the nasty power fights we are witnessing. The so-called United Democratic Front will also suffer a stillbirth because it's a union of fragmented parties."

University of Zimbabwe chairperson of the Political Science department Dr Charity Manyeruke said donor fatigue could be partly behind the turmoil.

"Since 1999, a number of NGOs came up with the sole purpose of regime change and billions of dollars was poured into that drive. However, donor fatigue has resulted in these funds dwindling and that is why we are seeing all these fights.

"Most of them have nothing to do with the needs of the people but the personal ambitions of the people involved. There is no genuine desire to fight for the plight of the people but for what position one occupies," she said.

Political scientist Mr Goodwine Mureriwa said the opposition parties had no clear ideologies to drive them.

"These parties are not grounded in an ideology and only say 'Mugabe must go', which is what their handlers in the West wanted. Most of these parties are made of people and groups with disparate interests.

"This explains all these splits because the goals were never similar in the first place," Mr Mureriwa said.