CCC Member of Parliament in Big trouble

FOR boycotting the official opening of the 10th Parliament by President Mnangagwa in Mount Hampden yesterday, CCC legislators will have their travel allowances forfeited and their accommodation costs deducted from their salaries after the Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, invoked Parliament’s Standing Orders to bring the errant parliamentarians to order.

During the official opening of the 10th Parliament, President Mnangagwa laid out the legislative agenda for the next five years and also delivered a State of the Nation Address (SONA) in front of legislators from the ruling Zanu PF party, who are the majority, and also diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe.

CCC legislators must be censured for disregarding the mandate of the people who voted for them in the recently held elections as their boycott of parliamentary business yesterday exposes their nauseating double standards that make them unfit for purpose, political analysts said.

Yesterday, CCC legislators, who are already queuing for vehicles and other perks that come with their elected offices, chose to boycott the official opening of the 10th Parliament in Mount Hampden by President Mnangagwa, ostensibly because they do not recognise him as the winner of the August 23 elections, but in reality because they were under pressure from their leader Mr Nelson Chamisa who is desperate to save face and now faces an uncertain political future.

Before they had been arm-twisted to boycott the official opening of Parliament, where the legislative agenda was set by President Mnangagwa, the CCC legislators on Monday checked into five-star hotels in Harare and received allowances to enable them to attend the State of the Nation Address (SONA), but they seemingly did not care about the expenses, the analysts added.

An analyst Mr Rutendo Matinyarare said the opposition failed to go to court to challenge the poll outcome and thus lacked both the legal and moral ground to cling to their desperate claims that the elections were rigged.

“They accepted to take an oath in the same Parliament that they had entered through the same process that established the Presidency. Also, they are ready to take the perks of Parliament like diplomatic passports, cars, and loans, but don’t want to recognise the person who is going to sign off on those things. It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“They are following the instructions of their leader who they believe can withdraw them from Parliament, but it is very childish. A lot was said by the President and it was going to make sense for the opposition to be there to be able to critique and be able to ask questions tomorrow (today).”

Writing on his X handle page, political analyst Mr Kudzai Mutisi said by boycotting the SONA, CCC demonstrated that they are not only taking people for granted but are also inconsequential to the development of the country.

“The absence of CCC legislators in Parliament won’t stop anything, proving to the masses that they are an insignificant & inconsequential minority. Second, it reinforces the narrative that voting for CCC is a waste of time . . . they aren’t mature enough to be useful representatives of the people who voted for them,” he said.

With Zanu PF in the majority, Mr Mutisi said the opposition will have no one to blame if the ruling party takes action to dock allowances and other perks and privileges that come with their offices.

A political commentator Dr Tinos Jujuju said boycotting Parliament is the highest level of disrespect the opposition can show to the electorate and a clear disregard of their mandate.

“Remember that CCC is just an MDC which changed its colours from red to yellow. In 2013, the late MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai threatened to boycott Parliament after his party was trounced in the elections. The CCC inherited that same spirit. It is in their DNA.

“However, there is no vacuum in the governance system of the country hence legal proceedings will be initiated by the Clerk of Parliament to ensure that MPs are reined in and conduct themselves ethically and within the confines of law,” he said.

Dr Jujuju said any efforts to render the country ungovernable are backward and show lack of maturity in a modern democracy.

A political analyst Mr Gibson Nyikadzino said the CCC remains an embodiment of anarchist reactionaries who act without rationality to the legislative agenda that drives policy making in the State.

“That idea to boycott is not influenced by any ideological position, but a group-think mentality to please their leader whose imaginations are misleading by thinking President Mnangagwa’s re-election is an issue that can be reversed. They will remain confusionists and hence they are doing a disservice to the people, who one way or the other will realise they were being misled,” he said.

A lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, Dr Prolific Mataruse, said while it shows the richness of democracy to allow alternative views to be aired, the best thing is to pool efforts together and contribute to the development of the country.

“Let dissent be a virtue of our independence rather than a vice of our liberty.

“This (boycott) will and is not going to stop the progress of the Second Republic on its mandate; it is the will of the people they are representing that is being wasted. They have been voted to represent not to boycott.

“CCC MPs lack advice on how to air their grievances, Zanu PF has a good quorum to move the country forward. Therefore, in Zimbabwe boycotting is not a solution at all rather sit for dialogue than this,” he said.

All the analysts canvassed agreed that with or without the CCC, Parliament business will move on and urged authorities to take stern action against anarchists clothed as genuine opposition figures

CCC Member of Parliament in Big trouble