Chamisa Returns to Politics, Vows to Challenge Zanu-PF’s Rule

Nelson Chamisa
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HARARE — Former opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has officially announced his return to active politics, pledging never to abandon Zimbabweans who continue to see him as a formidable challenger to Zanu-PF’s decades-long grip on power.

In an interview with The Standard, Chamisa sharply criticised moves by elements within the ruling party to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s tenure beyond the constitutional limit of 2028 to 2030, dismissing the so-called “2030 agenda” as political manoeuvring designed to avoid democratic accountability.

“Over two million Zimbabweans have shown their consistent trust and support, and I appreciate that,” said Chamisa. “I will never betray these great Zimbabweans. The whole 2030 nonsense is a desperate attempt to avoid the people and the elections — it is a window for further destroying an otherwise beautiful country.”

Although Mnangagwa has publicly stated he has no intention of extending his rule beyond 2028, Zanu-PF adopted a resolution at its annual conference last year to explore constitutional amendments that would allow him to stay in office until 2030.

Chamisa’s comeback follows a brief hiatus from frontline politics after he lost control of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), the opposition party he founded in January 2022 after breaking away from the MDC Alliance. Last year, CCC secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu controversially assumed leadership of the party and recalled several of its elected MPs, triggering costly by-elections that handed Zanu-PF a two-thirds parliamentary majority. Tshabangu has been accused of being a ruling party proxy, charges he denies.

Explaining his departure from the CCC, Chamisa said: “Leaving the CCC is different from leaving the people of Zimbabwe whom I so deeply respect and value. I left the old vehicle only because Zanu-PF had captured and compromised it. As a matter of principle, leaving the old vehicle was necessary because people now know who is and who isn’t with them. It’s now so clear who stands with the people and who does not.”

He described the CCC under its current leadership as having become “a creation and poodle of Zanu-PF.”

Chamisa also accused Mnangagwa’s administration of punishing Zimbabweans for rejecting him at the ballot box, alleging governance failures, corruption and deepening poverty since the disputed 2018 and 2023 elections.

“After the 2018 and 2023 elections, my competitor, Mr Mnangagwa, never forgave the people for voting against him and his party; instead he has punished them with high taxes, rampant corruption, poor services and untold suffering,” he charged.

Chamisa has refused to recognise Mnangagwa’s election victories in both 2018 and 2023, claiming the votes were fraudulent and the results rejected by Zimbabweans and the international community alike.

His renewed entry into the political arena signals fresh mobilisation by opposition forces ahead of the next election cycle, setting the stage for another fierce contest over Zimbabwe’s leadership and the direction of its democratic future.