CONSTITUTIONAL Amendment No 2 Bill, which seeks to abolish the clause on running mates among 26 others which are enshrined in the Constitutional Amendment (No 20) Act adopted after a referendum in 2013 on Tuesday, sailed through the Lower House by a 191 to 22 majority.
The Bill was supported by Members of Parliament from Senator Douglas Mwonzora’s MDC-T formation, and Zanu PF, and is now awaiting its reading in the Senate.
Mwonzora since, taking over power from the interim leader Thokozani Khupe following a Supreme Court ordered extraordinary congress in December last year, has said he has dumped the politics of confrontation in favour of dialogue with the ruling Zanu PF party.
His new stance has left observers concluding that Mwonzora was now colluding with Zanu PF to destroy his rival Nelson Chamisa’s MDC Alliance and help President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime shrink the democratic space.
However, speculation has been heightened by the divulsion on Thursday by Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba, that Zanu PF tricked the MDC formations to consent to the passing of the Constitution with the contentious clause on the running mate, waiting to get a supreme majority in Parliament and then amend it before it becomes operational. During the constitutional-making process, Mwonzora was the point man for the MDC-T led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai.
With Charamba’s revealation, a question then arises whether Mwonzora played the Abel Muzorewa trick, knowing what was under Zanu PF’s armpit. Muzorewa colluded with the Ian Smith regime to negotiate a “fake” independence under the moniker Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, a ploy by the white Rhodesians to give blacks a fake sense of independence.
Could this be what Mwonzora and Zanu PF had under their sleeves when the constitutional-making process was in progress, to hoodwink Zimbabweans and give them a false sense of hope?
Are the unfolding events a culmination of a long relationship conceived between Mwonzora and Zanu PF?
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However, what has raised eyebrows among Zimbabweans is how the MDC-T leader has overnight turned back and become one of the leading political figures fighting for the reversal of the gains of the 2013 Constitution. We would not be wrong to say he is cunning to have pulled the wool over everybody to cover his real intentions.
His history suggests he is a political chameleon, adapting to his own reality.
First he was with the Zimbabwe Unity Movement, then moved to the MDC, and now he has gone to bed with Zanu PF.
