Fragmentation of political parties:

This has always suited the incumbent ruling political parties since the numerous fragmented political parties invariably suffer from such maladies as lack of popular support, lack of financial and other resources, weak political programmes and manifestoes, lack of access to mass media, infighting and jockeying for positions of power and influence, and petty jealousies.

Former liberation political parties – now the ruling parties in most of our countries – tend to suffer from the political diseases we call authoritarianism and dictatorship. We could also call it despotism. The DNA of these former liberation political parties is such that they are allergic to handing over political power to any other parties even if they get defeated in democratic elections.

The situation is worsened when there are numerous small and fragmented political parties in the country, and when none of these smaller parties has the capacity to win an election single-handedly. Indeed, experience has taught us that the incumbent ruling parties devise all manner of devious means to ensure that the fragmented smaller parties will never win an election regardless of how free and fair that election may be.

Former liberation political parties are of the belief that only they have the right to rule the countries they liberated. They often forget that all the people of any previously colonised country also liberated their countries. It was not only the people who took up arms, got trained in guerrilla warfare and confronted the colonisers, who can claim to have liberated our countries. We all participated in one way or the other.

Fragmentation of political parties is clearly a negation of democratic development in any country. The Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) of Zambia effectively demonstrated to all of us what can be achieved when numerous small parties and progressive groups come together against a seemingly massive incumbent ruling party.

This phenomenon can be repeated in other southern African countries if our small political parties deliberately come together and work as one team for the sake of democratic development in our countries. The word TEAM stands for Together Each Achieves More. That simply means that the small political parties can only be stronger and more effective when they come together and work as a TEAM. The saying that divided we fall and united we stand should be treated with seriousness when it comes to political development and the promotion of multi-party democracy in our countries.

The need for our political parties to work together as one TEAM cannot be over-emphasized. We owe it to our country to reject fragmentation and forge ahead with unity of purpose and the constitution of one TEAM behind which the people of this great country will rally with the hope that sooner rather than later real and meaningful democracy will once again be the major thrust of this lovely nation.

The responsibility of making this possible rests with all of us and our various political parties. Posterity will judge us harshly one day if we should fail to set aside our differences and focus more on our numerous similarities and the primary goal of recreating a democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe. May God bless this our country!