The Democratic Union of Zimbabwe (DUZ) leader, Robert Chapman, has ruled out forming a coalition with other political parties, claiming that they have not worked well in the past.
The opposition in Zimbabwe, like in other African countries with a one-party dominant system, has viewed coalition, cooperation, or alliance politics as the most viable way to wrestle power from the Zanu PF party, but the opposition parties have yet to form a working alliance, resulting in the ruling party’s continued dominance.
Following the 2008 election results, Zimbabwe saw a government of national unity formed by Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), then in subsequent elections, the opposition tried various coalitions, but with little success.
The DUZ leader stated that an opposition coalition was required, but given the nature of opposition politics in the country, he was doubtful.
“We have seen something like that work in the past with Morgan Tsvangirai, when elections bore a government of national unity but I would encourage is maybe each party must look at their ideologies and see where they match on that, if they even want to engage in something like that,” Chapman said.
“Removing the ruling party is definitely a big task, I don’t want to sound naive about it, it’s a big, big task to do so.”
Chapman said a coalition’s success depended on whether political parties could work together.
“It depends if people can find each other, if they don’t they don’t. If they do, they do,” he said.
“But I think it goes back to peace and reconciliation. At some point we need the country to be working and working together, we need to be able to get that process moving but it has to come down to can we see the best of each other or are we going to spend more time looking at the worst of each other”.
As a fresh candidate in the 2023 presidential election contest, Chapman said he had no political background but had engaged with politicians and administrations as a businessperson.
“I am a Zimbabwean, a husband, a father, a Christian and a businessman. I have not run for political office before anywhere and I’m proud to say that I’ve not done that. Some will say, ‘do you have the experience?’ I do. In the business world, we do interact with the government and private sector which is why I understand the situation of jobs,” said the DUZ presidential candidate.
“The private sector in any functional society and economy usually intertwines with the government because of taxes, regulations and so forth in the process of import export international relationship and so forth.”
Chapman said what was important in his presidential bid was working with a competent team.
“The key part to understand is have I surrounded myself with competent strong people to help guide the process in which we are going through the elections, the answer is yes!” he stated.
