Tafadzwa Mandiwanza

RETWEET This is probably the most important tweet I will put out in the next 5 years. Today Zimbabwe will be a swearing in its new Members of Parliament that will serve Zimbabweans for the next 5 years after the recent elections. The Zimbabwean crisis has been anchored on the lack of institutional, political and economic Reforms. Reforms can only realistically happen in parliament away from the political posturing and grandstanding noise. As such, the opposition CCC should ensure the presence of a formidable committees team in parliament that will hold the Government to account for its actions, the same way MPs like Tendai Biti and Temba Mliswa did. The Zimbabwean crisis is driven by one thing, massive corruption. At the heart of this parliament should be Reforms and the exposing of corruption, the looting of public funds and the plunder of this country’s natural resources. Zimbabweans are poor, but their country is wealthy in resources. ZANUPF fights for power not for the sake of it, but to facilitate State corruption! These CCC committee teams should fight against the regime's corrupt actions, and more importantly advocate for Electoral Reforms and laws that prioritize the welfare of the poor people that sent them to parliament. CCC has 103 MPs, so it must deploy the strongest teams in parliamentary committees to resist any attempts to ride roughshod on our constitution by ZANUPF. There are opposition Members of Parliament that never spoke a word in the last parliament, that is a betrayal of the citizens considering the level of suffering and corruption in our society. The last term was characterised by people outside parliament being more effective in exposing corruption and lack of public service delivery. This must change if the opposition parliamentary cohort is to be taken seriously. Currently parliament is the most effective platform to challenge the regime because of the compromised state of our courts where corrupt elites should have been dealt with, but are getting away. Billions of State dollars were looted in the last 5 years, and yet there has been no single conviction of these political criminals! That is why parliament should become the most import political theatre. ZANUPF is not yet done with its attempt to get a two thirds majority, it will attempt to get opposition MPs in rural and peri-urban areas convicted of contrived cases to force by-elections, the opposition must stay vigilant. If the opposition fails to force Reforms in this parliament, it would have failed because the election was rigged partly because of lack of Reforms. The 2028 election is going to be like no other, ZANUPF will have a new presidential candidate, and there will be new opposition faces too. The current opposition will either fail or succeed on the basis of what it does in this parliament in the next 5 years. It should be Reforms, Reforms and Reforms. The health delivery service is collapsed, Zimbabwe has no single working radiotherapy cancer machine, no medicines in hospitals, and 2500 women die every year giving birth because the biggest hospital only has ONE maternity theatre. This should be discussed daily in parliament until it is sorted, every MP should talk about this because it is the reason why they were elected, and not to fight for their cars and salaries. As the English idiom says, All Is Fair in Love and War, ZANUPF will not stop trying to undermine State institutions, CCC must be on guard. Parliament is not a platform to foolishly show off and politically posture, it is a place to make meaningful interventions for society. CCC must have a distinct reform agenda of what it seeks to achieve, and a roadmap of how it will achieve it. The Zim state of parliament for 2023-2028. ZANUPF: 176 MPs. 136 direct election. 33 women’s quota. 7 youth quota. CCC: 103 MPs. 73 direct. 27 women’s quota. 3 youth quota. Senate: ZANUPF: 33. CCC: 27. 18 Chiefs. 2 representing People With Disabilities. RETWEET