Opinion / Columnist
Zimbabwe doesn't need a Preacher - It needs a Champion
12 hrs ago | Views
Nelson Chamisa is back.
After months of political silence and speculation, the former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader has re-emerged, promising a new political vehicle and a "cleaner, fit-for-purpose" strategy. His return has sparked fresh hope among his supporters - but also weary scepticism among a public battered by years of broken promises.
This is not the Zimbabwe Chamisa left in 2023. It is harsher, meaner, more desperate.
The country's economy is in freefall. Jobs, once scarce, have all but disappeared. Factories and businesses are closing down. The informal sector has ballooned into the nation's default employment system, leaving millions of Zimbabweans hustling to survive in a broken system that offers no contracts, no safety nets, and no prospects. For many, every day is a battle for bread.
But while the majority struggles, the political elite flourishes. The so-called "Second Republic" has proven itself not a reformist break from the past, but a more sophisticated version of the same rot - draped in new slogans but governed by the same impunity. Corruption is no longer just endemic; it is metastatic. State resources are plundered with brazen disregard while basic public services - hospitals, schools, roads - collapse around the population.
Worse still, the government's tolerance for dissent is evaporating. Independent journalists, like Blessed Mhlanga and Faith Zaba, have been increasingly targeted, harassed, and vilified for doing their job: telling the truth. The regime, now fully allergic to accountability, clings tightly to narrative control - even as reality unravels at the seams.
In such a climate, hope alone is not enough. Chamisa must understand that the Zimbabwe of 2025 demands more than charismatic speeches, Bible verses, or poetic soundbites borrowed from Barack Obama. The stakes are too high for performance politics.
What Zimbabwe needs is not a preacher. It needs a champion.
Chamisa has repeatedly said that the CCC was just a "vehicle," and that he's now working on a better one. That's fine. But let's be clear: vehicles don't drive themselves. They don't build movements. They don't challenge authoritarianism. People do. Strategy does. Leadership does.
And leadership, in Zimbabwe today, requires more than symbolism and hope. It requires relentless political work - coalition-building, grassroots organising, legal pressure, international lobbying, and a total resistance to both fear and flattery.
Zimbabweans have paid too high a price - with jail time, exile, poverty, and even death - to be fed more hollow promises. They're not asking Chamisa to be perfect. They're asking him to be serious. To lead from the front, not from Twitter. To build a movement, not a moment. To get into the mud of real politics and fight for the millions who can no longer fight for themselves.
This isn't about personal ambition anymore. It's about national survival.
If Chamisa is serious about reclaiming a democratic future for Zimbabwe, then he must act like it. That means ditching the saviour complex and doing the hard work of democratic resistance. It means surrounding himself with competent, disciplined organisers - not cheerleaders and opportunists. It means confronting not just Zanu PF's repression, but the opposition's own failures of vision, unity, and execution.
If he cannot do that - if his return is simply a rebranding exercise cloaked in scripture - then perhaps political hibernation is where he belongs.
Zimbabwe has no time left for prophets without plans. The people are not looking for inspiration. They are desperate for transformation.
We don't need a preacher. We need a champion.
One willing to bleed with the people. One ready to lead in fire. One who will not flinch when it matters most.
The moment demands it. The people deserve it. The future depends on it.
After months of political silence and speculation, the former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader has re-emerged, promising a new political vehicle and a "cleaner, fit-for-purpose" strategy. His return has sparked fresh hope among his supporters - but also weary scepticism among a public battered by years of broken promises.
This is not the Zimbabwe Chamisa left in 2023. It is harsher, meaner, more desperate.
The country's economy is in freefall. Jobs, once scarce, have all but disappeared. Factories and businesses are closing down. The informal sector has ballooned into the nation's default employment system, leaving millions of Zimbabweans hustling to survive in a broken system that offers no contracts, no safety nets, and no prospects. For many, every day is a battle for bread.
But while the majority struggles, the political elite flourishes. The so-called "Second Republic" has proven itself not a reformist break from the past, but a more sophisticated version of the same rot - draped in new slogans but governed by the same impunity. Corruption is no longer just endemic; it is metastatic. State resources are plundered with brazen disregard while basic public services - hospitals, schools, roads - collapse around the population.
Worse still, the government's tolerance for dissent is evaporating. Independent journalists, like Blessed Mhlanga and Faith Zaba, have been increasingly targeted, harassed, and vilified for doing their job: telling the truth. The regime, now fully allergic to accountability, clings tightly to narrative control - even as reality unravels at the seams.
In such a climate, hope alone is not enough. Chamisa must understand that the Zimbabwe of 2025 demands more than charismatic speeches, Bible verses, or poetic soundbites borrowed from Barack Obama. The stakes are too high for performance politics.
What Zimbabwe needs is not a preacher. It needs a champion.
Chamisa has repeatedly said that the CCC was just a "vehicle," and that he's now working on a better one. That's fine. But let's be clear: vehicles don't drive themselves. They don't build movements. They don't challenge authoritarianism. People do. Strategy does. Leadership does.
Zimbabweans have paid too high a price - with jail time, exile, poverty, and even death - to be fed more hollow promises. They're not asking Chamisa to be perfect. They're asking him to be serious. To lead from the front, not from Twitter. To build a movement, not a moment. To get into the mud of real politics and fight for the millions who can no longer fight for themselves.
This isn't about personal ambition anymore. It's about national survival.
If Chamisa is serious about reclaiming a democratic future for Zimbabwe, then he must act like it. That means ditching the saviour complex and doing the hard work of democratic resistance. It means surrounding himself with competent, disciplined organisers - not cheerleaders and opportunists. It means confronting not just Zanu PF's repression, but the opposition's own failures of vision, unity, and execution.
If he cannot do that - if his return is simply a rebranding exercise cloaked in scripture - then perhaps political hibernation is where he belongs.
Zimbabwe has no time left for prophets without plans. The people are not looking for inspiration. They are desperate for transformation.
We don't need a preacher. We need a champion.
One willing to bleed with the people. One ready to lead in fire. One who will not flinch when it matters most.
The moment demands it. The people deserve it. The future depends on it.
Source - online
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
