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MULTI-PARTY democracy is premised on giving people a wide pool from which to choose the government they want. The opposition party’s main role is to shadow the government of the day and hold them to account. A responsible opposition party represents an alternative government and is responsible for challenging the policies of the government of the day through alternative policies where appropriate.

As such the opposition does not cast itself as an adversary to the government, but rather as an alternative which is why in mature democracies, the leader of the opposition represents the opposition at state functions, meetings with dignitaries and other important national events.

That is in mature democracies.
Which is not the case in Zimbabwe where despite being in existence for 14 years, the opposition MDC-T has failed to transform from a protest movement to a viable alternative to the ruling Zanu-PF.

We say so because the modus operandi MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai employed in 2000, soon after the launch of his party, is the same modus operandi he clings to: opposing for the sake of opposing, criticising without offering alternatives and a penchant to call for protests that no one has ever heeded.

And it is not difficult to understand why people have not listened to Mr Tsvangirai’s calls for mass action, stayaways and other such trickery designed to provoke a heavy-handed response from the State, the MDC-T does not come across as a viable alternative to Zanu-PF. This explains the party’s successive losses to Zanu-PF.

Progressive Zimbabweans have always asked of the MDC-T that before criticising Zanu-PF policies, the party must offer alternatives.
And before trying to overcome security barriers in the street, the MDC-T must first demonstrate the force of the ideas they hold as an alternative government.

Mr Tsvangirai set up a shadow Cabinet soon after Zanu-PF set up Government, the idea of a shadow cabinet is to hold the substantive Cabinet to account but up to now a whole year since the new Zanu-PF government took office, we are still to hear what the MDC-T has to offer as an alternative to Zim-Asset.

For the duration of the inclusive Government, the MDC-T was an “included party” in Government, feeding off Zanu-PF policies
People heard the MDC-T talk about its rich friends in the West, but for four whole years when the party was in Government those friends were nowhere to be seen. And now Zanu-PF is in government alone we have seen the Government sign mega deals with China and Russia, deals that have since been operationalised as can be seen in the Kariba South Extension project and the US$3 billion platinum mine launched in Darwendale.

These are all tangible deliverables, that no sane person can trash for Mr Tsvangirai’s empty talk. The MDC-T leader should put his money where his mouth is.
Zimbabwe deserves better.