The birth of a tyrant, the missing constitution
AT first glance, one wonders why there is all the noise about Nelson Chamisa’s CCC not having a congress to elect legitimate leaders? After all, it’s up to him and his supporters to fashion CCC as a one-man-band of sorts.
But wait a moment; Chamisa’s outfit says it has a constitution today, and tomorrow says it doesn’t need it.
At the rebranding of the group from MDC Alliance on January 24, 2022, here is what the CCC leader said: “After all is said and done, they (ZEC) said fine, we have now received your letter and we want to see your constitution.
“We said a constitution we have, a brilliantly written document. It will help you understand who we are. We have new everything. A new constitution, a new mind-set, a new thrust and of course a new focus and a new philosophy.”
So, if at the launch, a constitution was already in place, why is there so much debate about its existence, and why have we not seen this so-called “brilliantly written document”?
The answers provide insight into what we have on our hands; a party led by an insecure leader who wants a party run by his word and nothing else, and a party hastily built, with deliberately no structures.
Even among CCC’s multitudes of self-appointed advisors, there is confusion.
While Chamisa announced on Day 1 that CCC had a constitution, the likes of Dr Alex Magaisa are not aware of it. For, if he was aware, he would not have urged the leadership to come up with one as he did weeks after the launch.
In a tweet, Dr Magaisa said those clamouring for the CCC to elect a legitimate leadership have legitimate reasons because it is the constitution that defines roles and functions of the organs of the party.
“The organs of a party are creatures of its founding document, the constitution or the ‘grund norm’”, Dr Magaisa counselled, urging CCC to “hasten the pace to establish the set of roles called the constitution, even an interim one”.
It appears some followers of the CCC and independent observers got confused with Chamisa’s braggadocious party launch.
Surely, if they had listened intently, they would not have missed the part on the constitution and would have taken him to task five months after the launch.
Is it not so ironic that an entity that fashions itself as a democratic alternative is embroiled in a legal morass unable to birth a legitimate leadership or offer constitutional direction to its followers?
There are reasons why Chamisa has remained ideology-less and without a functional constitution.
The first reason is obvious. This entity’s birth was hastily done. There were no structures. It was born out of an attempt to blight the prospects of the MDC Alliance led by Douglas Mwonzora who had taken over the party’s properties including the head offices.
The second reason is that Chamisa is trying to refashion the CCC as a new formation, when it is in fact the same party that the West invested so much in, but has failed to effect regime change in Zimbabwe.
The third is a fear by Chamisa of widening ructions with some senior members who are sceptical of his leadership. People like Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti, prominent lawyers, are averse to a situation where a party is birthed without what Dr Magaisa called the “grund num”.
Insecurity is at the centre of Chamisa’s attempt to centralise imagined power around himself.
The argument by CCC’s deputy spokesperson Gift Ostallos Siziba that the nomenclature of a congress does not exist in the opposition party is a mere red herring.
It is a universal dictum that any political entity that presents itself as democratic derives its legitimacy and power from the people.
Call it by whatever name, a process to elect a leadership makes the entity legitimate. By refusing to hold a congress or a convention, Chamisa is doing what he set out to do; protect himself from his internal rivals.
Some, including journalists expected to have respect for facts, have drawn false equivalences, attempting to juxtapose the revolutionary ZANU-PF and the rag-tag CCC as equals. They are not.
“Musangano Kumasero” is not just a song. It is a reality of ZANU-PF’s age-old respect for structure.
Journalists must tell things as they are, because language can illuminate truth as much as it can obfuscate it. This is not a party; it is a personality cult of its leader.
The time has come for the media, on either side, to really educate and inform. To be cleareyed, active rather than reactive, so that the masses make clear choices about what truly matters.
We need to put to rest those selling fantasies to the electorate while claiming to be democrats.
Lies must be countered with facts, repeatedly and unflaggingly.
This CCC entity is far from being a democratic entity. It’s political bankruptcy is no more a matter of debate. Zimbabweans need to counter this political forgery by proclaiming greater truths of our humanity — compassion and decency.
An ugly idea of puppetry, if left unchallenged, begins to turn normal. It does not have to be like this.