Zimbabwean political veteran Nelson Chamisa is creating a movement in an effort to kickstart opposition to President Emmerson Mnangagwa‘s ZANU-PF administration, he tells The Africa Report from London before his return to Zimbabwe.
“It’s such an important point of reference – with over five million Zimbabweans in the diaspora, we decided to target the UK,” he says. Chamisa’s whistle-stop tour took him to cities including Manchester and London, where he spoke to Zimbabweans about his new movement, which the press has been calling Agenda 2026.
“The feedback is clear. Most of the Zimbabweans in the diaspora, just like Zimbabweans at home, are clamouring for change,” he says, noting he will be touring with his movement when he goes home.
Movement vs political party
Chamisa says that creating a movement is more inclusive: “It cuts across races, cuts across tribes, regions, cuts across gender, and cuts across even political party persuasion and ideology.”
Theory of change is about moving from the street to the state
His previous opposition movement-cum-political party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), was hijacked in 2023 by the ruling ZANU-PF party and self-imposed secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu, even though other party members, including Chamisa, contested his standing in the party.
“We’ve learned our lessons, and we’ve done everything within our power, based on our experience, based on our challenges and circumstances,” says Chamisa. “We have put sufficient … safeguard mechanisms on the ground to make sure that infiltration does not become another challenge that we’ll face.”
Chamisa says he is tired of the “dictatorship strategy” of divide and rule, but when asked, he says that peaceful protest is the method of struggle the new movement has chosen. “Theory of change is about moving from the street to the state, is about moving from peaceful resistance and mobilisation … so that we have a citizens’ government in our lifetime,” he says.
A report this week from Human Rights Watch outlines the problems for the opposition under the Mnangagwa regime. “Violence, intimidation, harassment and repression aimed principally at opposition party members, journalists, students and civil society activists have severely restricted civic and political space,” the report stated. “Eight years on, justice is still elusive for the families of six people killed and the 35 injured by Zimbabwe state security forces during the 1 August 2018 protests,” it added.
Noting that unemployment, poverty and inequality are forms of violence, Chamisa says: “Citizens themselves are ready. There’s already violence every day. The only difference is that it’s subtle.”
‘Not interested in the oppressor’s timetable’
As for the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 3) Bill, passed on 7 July, that would move elections to 2030, giving Mnangagwa three more years of power, Chamisa responds: “We’re not interested. We don’t work according to the dictates of the oppressor. We don’t look at the oppressor’s timetable.”
Calling the constitutional amendment “illegal”, he questions why the change was necessary in the first place. “Mnangagwa is seeking to extend that disputed mandate illegally. Why? Because he knows that he will never win in an election,” he says, adding that Zimbabwe does not belong to one individual.
“This is not a monarch. The citizens shall govern, and the citizens shall determine their fate and the future of this country,” he adds.
Regional solidarity necessary
Chamisa says that taking back the country is possible, and that regional actors must understand the difficulties Zimbabweans are encountering at this moment. “For those who are in South Africa, who are being unkind to Zimbabweans, we are asking for that African solidarity,” he says.
“Remember us during our weak moment, because it’s not going to be like this forever. Yes, we may be facing challenges, but this is the season, and we’ll be out of it,” he adds, recalling that the 2023 elections were not rubber-stamped as free and fair by all African electoral observers.
Meanwhile, Zambia President Hakainde Hichilema shook hands with Mnangagwa in November during his state visit to Zimbabwe after years of giving his neighbour the cold shoulder. Chamisa was invited to Hichilema’s inauguration five years ago, while Mnangagwa was not.
“We’re not disappointed; we understand statecraft. The president of Zambia is a good leader, a good man,” he says in response, adding that the presidents of Botswana, South Africa and Namibia also want a better region.
“These are all people who have also seen the very wicked hand of dictatorship. So yes, they can shake hands, but they know that shaking hands does not necessarily mean agreement,” he says.
“But going forward, there is a need for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to be a region of the civilised, a region of the democratic, a region of the prosperous … As a people, we want to have the best out of us, out of our country and out of Africa,” he says.
