By Dr Masimba Mavaza | My father told me the story of a milk man. He used to sell his milk in the villages around him. Every morning he will cycle his by cycle village by village delivering his milk. He would always be in a white suit those days it was called safari suit. Everyday he will deliver all his milk.
One day the milkman cycled as usual he went to a village called Chidhau nobody not even one bought a drop of milk. He went to Chikodzonga Ngoshi Gwanzura Chiringa Mavhudzi nobody bought his milk. He was now getting frustrated. He then stopped in Nhau village offered his milk for free. Just one look at him they all refused to get the milk. Now he decided to make one last stop at Maendesa village he thought his Sahwira known as mudhara Frank will get the milk. But Frank refused but offered him a quick advise. “My friend Frank said,look on this mirror and you will notice why people are not getting your milk even for free.”The milk man looked and low and behold there was a yellow lump of mucus Bogies on his white shirt. It had dried but still left a disgusting sight. Each person who saw the disgusting yellow mucus on his white shirt will retreat in the house to vomit.
One can not talk of rule of law without showing the inclination of following his own law. You can not talk of democracy when you can not be democratic to yourself.
If you want to run a business of any magnitude ( incorporated or unincorporated), you need to set out a governance document or a form of written constitution that sets out your vision and your objectives. That document identifies your purpose and mission so as to establish your legitimacy. It also governs your internal relationships and how you relate to the outside world.
Interpersonal skills and any human to human relationship is governed by a set of rules called the constitution.
Mr Chamisa and the CCC are doing even what elderly folks in rural ereas would cringe at: running a political organisation on a whim and without a single document. CHAMISA is running the party as a church where the pastor can not be questioned. Chamisa is choking in the confusion of a pastor and a power star. It rhymes but it is clearly different.
Anything in today’s world needs a constitution.
If running a partnersip of operating only two registred taxis vehicles requires a partnership document, the need for running a proper political party with a constitution does not need any emphasis at all.
No one knows what CCC is, other than that it has been labelled as a political party. No one knows the eligibility criteria for membership. No one knows the elegibility for political leadership. In fact there is no office other than the unelected offices of president and his spokesperson who is Chamisa’s soul mate.
There is simply no constitution to give identity to CCC. Zimbabweans cannot objectively judge the authenticity of the party because there is no set out structure or constitution to evaluate and judge the party’s credibility on. CCC has no parameters. If they were to be in office they would run the country arbitrarily.
The party has no foundation, no values, no vision and no goal. Zimbabweans are being sold a dummy. This is Mr Chamisa’s personal toy. He can get rid of it at any moment and say that it never was after all. There are no expectations, no standard and no rules to hold Chamisa by.
In fact without an election and without a constitution, the self-proclaimed leader is the law unto himself.
This party is called a coalition of citizens? It is unknown as to why citizens are coming together, beyond the clamour that “Chamisa chete chete”. This rancour and clamour can be made at a shabeen or pub but that does not elevate the grouping of drunks to a political party just because they say “Chamisa chete chete”.
By its definition, a serious political party is one that has a defined ideology, a structure, a constitution and clearly identified values.
Clearly the party collects funds from members of the public through subscriptions etc. That is well and fair enough. The problem here is that without a constitution there is no financial transparency or accountability. This is a grave concern.
Mr Chamisa, Miss Mahere and the CCC (whoever the CCC is) have represented that they are the champions of democracy. They claim that they want to bring democracy to Zimbabwe. The sad irony is that they have not brought any democracy to their own party. They do not understand what democracy is because they are undemocratic in their origin, nature and practice.
There is a big issue of trust. Chamisa cannot ask Zimbabweans to trust that he will bring democracy to the country when his existence as a leader is via undemocratic means.
Democracy in governance is an inherently hard thing to achieve even by those who try and have the best of intentions. This is because the state is a complex organisim. A leader has to balance many competing interests. Chamisa is not even trying when he is outside power and it sends chills on the spine to realise that if he were to get hold of the state machinary he would act with shameful and dangerous impunity. Zimbabweans are not children. They know that the ditactorship with which Mr Chamisa runs the CCC will blosom into an ugly best if he were to taste power.
There are other things that are terrifying about CCC being without a rader, without a compass, without a constitution and its leader without accountability. This is that the relationship between Chamisa and the rest of the “big” fellas at CCC is akin to that of a selfish poligamist man with his multiple unhappy wives. The selfish man brands the discords, disharmony and disunity in the relationship as a happy family, much the same way as Chamisa brands the awkward and often uneasy relationships within his outfit.
Even worse, Chamisa, in this typically unhappy poligamous relationship, is not challenged That is their business. It becomes our concern when Chamisa wants to be a state president. He is unchallenged and unaccountable now. The same band of people who allow him to run a party without a constitution will allow him to run our country any how, if he were to be elected into office.
Therefore this is not a matter where we are just concerned with a mere piece of paper or lack of it by CCC; it is not just that they have no constitution. The underlying issue is that they have no democratic accountability within themselves and they masquerade as democratic saviours. The concern is that Chamisa wants us to believe that if he were to get into office he will rule by the rule of law when he has not evidenced that in running his own party.
CCC has put forward a bizarre excuse for not having a constitution by saying that Zanu will copy it. There are tens of thousands of constitutions on line. If Zanu PF wanted to copy anything (which is an insane suggestion anyway) why would it particularly copy CCC’s consitution? Zanu PF has existed and won elections since 1980. What would possibly be unique and enticing in the CCC constitution.
Assuming that Zanu PF will indeed copy the constitution. Even then one would have thought that running a party without democratic accountability and without a constitution was too grave an issue; that the need to avoid your opponent copying your document pales into insignificance compared to the need to demonstrate and cultivate a constitutional culture.
Are we meant to believe that if CCC were to get into power it may run the country without a structure and without a constitution or policy if it felt that a neighbouring country will copy those? What parents will starve their children on the grounds that cooking will attract thieves who will break in, steal and escape with the food? So the preferred option is to starve to death the children or, in Chamisa’s equivalent, run an organisation without an election, without a constitution and plainly undemocratically?
We can not rule out the fact that CCC are too incompetent to produce a constitution and policies anywhere. Therefore we can’t trust them to govern. Governing involves coming up with numerous statutes and Statutory Instruments. This is a serious matter. If a party runs without documents in opposition, it must know that there is no such delusional aporoach in office abd statesmanship.
Zimbabweans are watching. They will not be fooled by those who combine incompetence and impunity. CCC is not only beneath its depth, it is tun dictatorial.
What basis doe Chamisa call himself an opposition leader. What basis does Nyembesi Mahere call herself the spokesperson of CCC.