Popular award winning Zimbabwean journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono, has slammed the opposition MP for Mbare , Starman Chamisa, for not getting a court order to stop a New Year concert that was attended by thousands in Mbare in violation of Coronavirus regulations.
Chin’ono wrote on Facebook :
Some people on this thread asked a weird question, they want to know why I think the opposition should be involved in this issue of the illegal Mbare concert.
Some even attacked me for raising this point, let me address it here.
Firstly, It shows the tragic breakdown of a positive political culture authored by 40 years of ZANUPF misrule!
An opposition Member of Parliament is an alternative leader in everything to do with his constituency and community.
Whereas the police and the government irresponsibly failed to stop this tragic gathering, the opposition MP could have stopped the gathering by getting an urgent court order or putting pressure on the police.
He could have gone to the police to escalate the issue, he or she would have known about this event ahead of time through his or her party network in Mbare that this was going to happen.
Zimbabweans who live in South Africa and Britain understand what I am taking about here because those countries have a robust political opposition culture!
Zimbabweans inside Zimbabwe who apply critical thinking understand the role of an opposition.
ZANUPF has failed to rule, why would we expect it to suddenly deliver last night?
In the absence of ZANUPF’s competence, the opposition should step in and show and expose the ruling party deficiency by getting things done the right way!
Yes ZANUPF controls the police, but should we sit and watch when its failures can kill us all through Covid-19.
Journalists single handedly got the Health Minister fired in July 2020 through consistently probing and exposing his corrupt reign.
Why can’t the opposition do the same in pursuit of playing its role, they get paid these MPs from taxpayers.
They are accountable to us the taxpayers that is why we should raise these issues!
Journalists might as well have simply said ZANUPF is corrupt and ignored the Drax looting!
That is why it is important for the opposition to understand their role in society when they have been elected.
We need a change of political culture and not only a change of political parties doing the same thing as ZANUPF through commission and omission!
If I was the opposition MP for that area, I would have made a real meal out of this even for endangering his or her constituents!
I could have gone to the police to stop the concert from going ahead!
If I failed, I would have gone to court for an urgent court order, the MDC-A is a party of lawyers after all!
Failure to get one, I would have then made a political issue out of it by exposing the regime’s failures!
That is how alternative leadership or opposition is supposed to operate!
You don’t fold your hands and talk like anaHopewell paSocial Media!
We want a proactive opposite and not a reactive one! Reminding it of its role is part of the democratic culture!
We should not be afraid to engage in rational reasoning especially in issues that are of a life and death matter!
