\u201cAre our resolutions truly coming from the people?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Constantino Chiwenga asked that question at ZANU PF\u2019s Chinhoyi conference. It deserves to follow every delegate home. Coming from an opposition activist, it might have been dismissed as bitterness. Coming from the Vice President, standing before the President he helped install, it becomes an uncomfortable admission that the ruling party\u2019s claims to popular legitimacy require examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chiwenga\u2019s prepared remarks went well beyond ceremonial pleasantries. He questioned whether conferences genuinely capture grassroots opinion, challenged leaders to examine past mistakes and insisted that change must come from the people. He reminded those present that they were temporary custodians. These are ordinary democratic principles. Their explosive quality in that room tells us something about the political culture receiving them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most pointed passage addressed Mnangagwa directly: \u201cYou may recall Your Excellency, that \u2018the voice of the people is the voice of God\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was a particularly sharp way of returning the President\u2019s own language to him. A slogan that once helped legitimise a new administration was being presented as an obligation against which its conduct should be measured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mnangagwa\u2019s address offered a different emphasis. The official transcript celebrates internal party democracy, praises the management of disagreements and instructs members to move together, neither falling behind nor racing ahead. Both leaders condemned \u201cmazvake mazvake\u201d, the pursuit of individual interests. In the context of their succession tensions, the exchange reasonably reads as a struggle over who gets to define selfish ambition and who must submit to collective discipline. Neither explicitly named the other as its target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That distinction matters, but it should not empty the speeches of meaning. Chiwenga asked whether the party was listening. Mnangagwa assured it that democracy was already entrenched. One demanded examination; the other emphasised adherence to the party\u2019s direction. Those positions reveal a serious disagreement beneath the rehearsed declarations of unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conference\u2019s decisions give that disagreement practical weight. Its resolutions postponed the elective congress from 2027 to 2029 and endorsed Mnangagwa\u2019s continued leadership. Whatever applause Chiwenga\u2019s intervention attracted, the institutional outcome strengthened the incumbent. A forceful speech and control of the machinery are very different forms of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, Zimbabweans should resist turning Chiwenga into a democratic saviour on the strength of one address. He occupies the second highest office in the administration whose direction he questioned. If past mistakes are returning, he must explain his own responsibility for confronting them. Accountability cannot stop conveniently at the President\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His warning against citizens surviving on the generosity of a privileged few was especially important. It challenges a political culture in which access to necessities can be presented as a favour from powerful individuals. But the answer requires public institutions that work fairly, budgets that withstand scrutiny and rights that survive changes of leadership. A speech cannot substitute for that programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nor should Mnangagwa\u2019s appeals to unity escape examination. Unity becomes a dangerous demand when those in charge decide that every challenge is personal ambition while their own continued authority represents the collective interest. A party cannot establish that distinction merely by having its leader announce it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For citizens, the useful part of Chinhoyi was the opening it created. Questions about representation, accountability and concentrated power were voiced from inside the leadership itself. Those questions should now be asked without permission at every level of public life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let both men answer them. Let Chiwenga explain what reforms he will support, and let Mnangagwa demonstrate how citizens can reject his preferred direction. Zimbabweans deserve more than the privilege of watching powerful colleagues accuse each other of selfishness. They deserve the power to hold both accountable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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