Nelson Chamisa, the tireless comeback kid

Source: Opposition in Simbabwe: Nelson Chamisa, das unermüdliche Stehaufmännchen | taz.de (January 27, 2026)

Zimbabwe's most prominent opposition leader is returning to politics after a two-year absence. A new “Agenda 2026” is set to shake up the country.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Zimbabwe's most important opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, is back in politics – and the resurrection of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's main opponent and his ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front), which has been in power since 1980, is generating mixed feelings.

At the end of last week, 47-year-old Chamisa launched his new movement, “Agenda 2026,” which he presented as a broad-based citizens' movement. “Zimbabwe needs a fresh start,” Chamisa said in the capital Harare.

“Zimbabwe needs a new path. This new path begins with a long-term reflection on a crucial truth: that until now, political alternatives have too often been built on a corrupt, compromised, weary, and sterile past.”

Agenda 2026 stands for “a clear break with the mistakes of the past,” Chamisa continued. “It is a commitment to rethink Zimbabwe and rebuild our nation on the basis of democratic values, constitutional loyalty, competence, and care.”

From MDC to CCC to Agenda 2026
The announcement was met with rather skeptical reactions. Exactly two years earlier, on January 24, 2024, Chamisa had resigned from the leadership of his original opposition movement, the CCC (Citizens Coalition for Change).

At the time, he cited the CCC's infiltration by ZANU-PF and the state as his reason for leaving. His departure left the CCC in chaos, with disputes over leadership and finances.

Chamisa now says that traditional political parties are too open to infiltration and division. A liberation movement could better unite the nation.

At 47, the trained lawyer and theologian is relatively young by Zimbabwean political standards, but he is a political veteran. Back in 1999, he joined Morgan Tsvangirai in founding the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), which emerged from Zimbabwe's trade unions – the country's first opposition party to pose a threat to ZANU-PF under its first president, Robert Mugabe.

Chamisa was Minister of Information in Zimbabwe's government of national unity, which Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed to form after the controversial 2009 elections and which lasted until 2013. He took over the leadership of the MDC in 2018 when Tsvangirai died. The party then split and lost the first elections in Zimbabwe without Mugabe in 2018, who had been deposed by the army at the end of 2017 and replaced by Mnangagwa.

Chamisa lost again to Mnangagwa in the next elections in 2023. This time he ran as the CCC candidate. It was obvious that the opposition was exhausted. Shortly afterwards, Chamisa withdrew from politics.

The ruling ZANU-PF party is rubbing its hands with glee

Many of his former comrades-in-arms are now cautious about his return and Agenda 2026. They say he should first apologize to those he left behind two years ago. Rachel Rusenza says, “We no longer have any trust in you, to be honest. Last time, you left us in the lurch without any explanation.”

Exiled former minister Jonathan Moyo expressed concern that Chamisa's new movement could suffer a similar fate to his last one. “Nothing is easier to infiltrate than a party launched by a single individual and posing as a movement. If that happens, will Chamisa run away again?”

The ruling party ZANU-PF is satisfied that Chamisa, who has been defeated several times, now wants to try again. “We are happy that Chamisa is back,” the party sneered on its social media channel “Zanu-PK Patriots.” “We had no opposition and we became complacent, we had started fighting each other.”

ZANU-PF is divided, with one faction behind President Mnangagwa and another behind Vice President Constantino Chiwenga. Chiwenga wants to become president when Mnangagwa's second and constitutionally final term ends in 2028. Supporters of the now 83-year-old president, on the other hand, want to extend his term until at least 2030.