ZANU PF and CCC self-styled secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu are reportedly at loggerheads ahead of a crucial Senate vote on Constitution Amendment No 3 Bill (CAB 3).
Reports suggest that negotiations over Tshabangu’s continued support for the Bill have stalled, threatening to upset Zanu PF’s calculations in the Upper House.
CAB 3 was formally tabled in the Senate this week after sailing through in the National Assembly with the assistance of 34 legislators aligned to Tshabangu.
Their votes helped Zanu PF to secure the two-thirds majority required to amend the Constitution.
The Bill seeks to extend the terms of office of senior judges and delay the implementation of constitutional provisions requiring elected local authority mayors and running mates for presidential candidates.
Now the same political actors who joined hands to push the Bill through Parliament appear to be quarrelling.
But Zimbabweans should not mistake this fallout for a principled disagreement.
At the centre of the negotiations is not the suffering of the people.
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It is not unemployment.
It is not the collapse of public healthcare.
It is not the deteriorating education system.
It is not the daily struggle of citizens trying to survive in an economy that seems determined to break them.
The negotiations are about power.
They are about influence.
They are about political survival.
And they are about who gets what from whom.
When Zanu PF and Tshabangu’s faction sit around a negotiating table, they are not discussing how to put food on the table for millions of hungry Zimbabweans.
They are not discussing how to revive industry, create jobs or restore dignity to citizens crushed by economic hardship.
They are discussing political interests.
That is why CAB 3 has generated so much suspicion.
At a time when hospitals lack basic medicines, roads are crumbling, water shortages persist and young people are fleeing the country in search of opportunities, the political elite is obsessing over constitutional amendments.
One is forced to ask: Who benefits?
Certainly not the ordinary citizen.
The same political class that tells Zimbabweans to tighten their belts continues to invest enormous energy in protecting and extending its own privileges.
This is the tragedy of Zimbabwean politics.
Politicians have become merchants of crisis.
They thrive on instability.
They feed off division.
They manufacture problems and present themselves as the only people capable of solving them.
The result is a cycle in which citizens remain trapped while politicians grow wealthier, more powerful and more disconnected from reality.
The standoff between Zanu PF and Tshabangu exposes what many Zimbabweans have long suspected: political alliances in this country are rarely built on principles.
They are built on convenience.
Today’s ally becomes tomorrow’s enemy.
Today’s fierce critic becomes tomorrow’s negotiating partner.
The public interest is merely a slogan deployed during election campaigns and discarded once power is secured.
Zimbabweans deserve better.
They deserve leaders who place national interests above personal ambitions.
They deserve politicians who treat the Constitution as a sacred social contract rather than a document to be altered whenever it becomes politically convenient.
Most importantly, they deserve honesty.
The truth is that many of the battles being fought in Parliament today have little to do with improving the lives of ordinary people.
They are battles among the political elite seeking to secure their positions, protect their interests and strengthen their grip on power.
As CAB 3 heads to the Senate, Zimbabweans must see the process for what it is.
When politicians spend more time haggling over power than solving national problems, they cease to be the solution.
They become part of the problem.
And until that changes, the country will remain trapped in a political system where a privileged few continue to feast while the majority struggle to survive.
