New face of Zim politics
CHAMISA: HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE DREAM BIG AHEAD OF ELECTIONS
The 40-year-old offers simple and smart message that Zimbabweans can do it, says youth leader.
His ability to connect with the aspirations of people in Zimbabwe has made him draw crowds, Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC-T) Youth League secretary-general Lovemore Chinoputsa says of his party leader Nelson Chamisa.
“He is making us as a people re-imagine a better and prosperous Zimbabwe and is making us as young people dream big.”
Chinoputsa says after years of “stagnant and boring politics”, Chamisa has risen to the occasion by “offering a simple and smart message that we can do it as Zimbabweans”.
On Monday, Zimbabweans will choose between Chamisa and Zanu-PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa in the country’s first presidential election of the post-Robert Mugabe era.
Mnangagwa took power in a bloodless military coup in November. Chamisa rose to prominence after the death of veteran MDC leader and trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai on February 14.
Political commentator and analyst Blessing Vava says the huge turnouts at the rallies are a result of 40-year-old Chamisa’s “charisma and oratory skills”, youth and the fact that he is leading the main opposition, MDC-T.
In fact, Chamisa has been involved in politics for half his life, having served as the secretary of the Zimbabwe National Students’ Union between 1999 and 2001.
Having enrolled at Harare Polytechnic College in 1998 for a national diploma in marketing management, his eloquence saw him elected as Harare Polytechnic College students’ representative council president in the same year, only to be expelled the following year after leading several campus protests.
By the time he was 20, Chamisa was an active member of the Christian Union: Marketing Students’ Association; and the International Socialist Organisation.
He holds a BBA marketing degree from IMM Graduate School of Marketing (SA); BSc honours political science; and masters in international relations and diplomacy (both University of Zimbabwe); governance and development studies (Stanford University in California, the US); BLL law (University of Zimbabwe); and a degree in theology from Living Waters Bible College in Zimbabwe.
The MDC Alliance presidential candidate married Sithokozile on April 10, 2010, and the couple have a son, Ashley
In his yet-to-be-published book, Who is Who? Zinasu Leaders 1997-2008, Vava writes that Chamisa’s greatest inspiration were the students of Yugoslavia, who overthrew their country’s dictator, Slobodan Milosevic. – ANA