IN the wood-panelled quiet of the Senate in Harare, a man many Zimbabweans consider a political Judas on Wednesday attempted a rebranding of biblical proportions.
Sengezo Tshabangu, the self-appointed interim secretary-general who effectively gutted Nelson Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) through ruthless recalls, is no longer content being seen as a Zanu PF sidekick.
After trading the people’s 2023 mandate for a comfortable Senate seat and what critics call political trinkets, Tshabangu has found a new costume and wants his base in Matabeleland to believe he is the reincarnation of Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo.
To the ordinary voter in Bulawayo or Harare, the irony is thick enough to choke on.
This is the man who triggered a wave of costly by-elections, yet he stood before his peers to debate the Constitution Amendment No 3 Bill (CAB 3) claiming to speak for the “spirit” of national healing.
He didn’t speak as a party-wrecker, but as a man trying to claim the mantle of Father Zimbabwe.
“I rise today to debate . . . the spirit of a moment that changed our nation forever,” Tshabangu declared, invoking the 1987 Unity Accord.
He urged Zimbabweans to ignore the fine print of political deals and focus on the “spirit behind it”, claiming that “there is more to nation-building than power . . . than political score settling”.
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For a man whose recent career has been defined by political score-settling against Chamisa, the statement was a masterclass in audacity.
Tshabangu attempted to pivot from being the villain who dismantled the opposition to a visionary who is “choosing the future of Zimbabwe over the grievances of the past”.
He argued that CAB 3 should not be viewed through a narrow political lens, but through a “broad, generous lens of nationhood that Joshua Nkomo gave us”.
The core of his reincarnation act — and his most calculated play for the hearts of the Matabeleland provinces — was his focus on the Gukurahundi genocide.
Standing in the very institution he entered through the back door, he used surprisingly sharp language.
“Grievances cannot expire,” he told the Senate.
“The people of Matabeleland to date are still yearning and still in despair.”
Tshabangu’s price for his support of the Bill is a demand for a legal closure to the 1980s massacres.
He insisted that “Parliament must pass an Act of law in 12 months to . . . deal decisively with Gukurahundi 1983 to 1987.”
He warned that without this justice, victims remain “foreigners in our own land”, and challenged the President to make this his “legacy” so the people of the south can finally “believe that they belong to Zimbabwe”.
Tshabangu also leaned heavily to the language of the liberation struggle to push for a radical change in how we choose our leaders.
Invoking the term umtwan’omhlabathi (child of the soil), he proposed the “Mandela model”, where Parliament, not a general election, elects the President.
He argued that this allows a “minority son” from the Tonga, Kalanga or Venda communities to lead the republic based on “merit and national agreement” rather than a mere ethnic census.
Perhaps the most staggering moment of his speech was his call to end the “toxicity” of by-elections.
The man who became famous for using recalls to force by-elections now claims they are a “flashpoint of violence” and a “waste of public funds”.
He advocated for a return to the 2008 Government of National Unity (GNU) spirit, where parties simply nominate replacements for vacant seats to save money for “clinics, schools and hospitals”.
To the disillusioned Zimbabwean, Tshabangu’s speech was a confusing cocktail of high-minded statesmanship and deep political betrayal.
He concluded his performance with a defiant flourish: “History will absolve us.”
Whether history sees him as a bridge-builder finishing Nkomo’s work or a political mercenary using a hero’s name to mask power grab remains the burning question.
In the streets of Bulawayo, the verdict is still out, but Tshabangu has made his opening move: he isn’t just playing the game anymore; he’s trying to wear the crown of Father Zimbabwe.
He delivered the all-important votes that Zanu PF needed to ensure that CAB 3 passes and Mnangagwa gets his wish to rule for an extra two years without seeking re-election.
