By Advent Shoko | ZiGoats
Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono has raised fresh questions over the state of the country’s opposition, suggesting that what often looks like political confusion, incompetence or internal division could sometimes be the result of deliberate infiltration and long-term political strategy by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Chin’ono was responding to veteran journalist Mduduzi Mathuthu’s comments about Brilliant Dube, who was appointed a senator by Mnangagwa this week.
Mathuthu alleged that Dube had previously occupied influential positions within the opposition, including serving as Nelson Chamisa’s chief of staff in 2018 and working around election operations in Mashonaland East during the 2023 elections.
“Madam Dube was Nelson Chamisa’s chief of staff in 2018, was at the heart of the election machine,” Mathuthu wrote.
He further alleged that she had been given money to pay election agents in Mashonaland East in 2023 but failed to do so, before later appearing at Tendai Biti’s Constitution Defenders Forum (CDF).
“She was killing them from inside,” Mathuthu claimed.
Those allegations have not been independently established by ZiGoats.
Chin’ono: Mnangagwa plays the long game
Reacting to Mathuthu, Chin’ono argued that Zimbabwe’s opposition should not automatically assume that every political failure is simply the result of incompetence.
He said Mnangagwa had been operating strategically for years, cultivating relationships and positioning people in places where they could eventually become useful.
“As I have always said, Mnangagwa has been several steps ahead of the opposition and has had it surrounded for a very long time,” Chin’ono said.
He then recounted a story attributed to the late ZANU-PF politician and academic Dr Nathan Shamuyarira involving an intelligence operative who allegedly rose through the ranks of a private company after being deployed there.
According to Chin’ono, Robert Mugabe once asked: “How do we use him now? He was supposed to spy on the CEO, but he is now the CEO, and he is one of ours.”
Chin’ono presented the story as an illustration of the kind of long-term strategy he believes has characterised Mnangagwa’s political approach.
“That is how Mnangagwa has operated for decades,” he said, alleging that the president has cultivated opposition politicians, rewarded some and used them to weaken opposition movements from within.
These are Chin’ono’s political allegations and interpretation, rather than independently established evidence of a coordinated infiltration programme.
Opposition appointments raise old questions
The debate over Dube also revives questions about opposition figures who later received positions under Mnangagwa’s administration.
One prominent example is former MDC MP James Maridadi.
Maridadi, who represented Mabvuku-Tafara in Parliament, was appointed Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Senegal in 2019 after leaving Parliament. Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Ministry continues to list him as ambassador in Dakar.
His appointment generated controversy at the time, with critics questioning why a former opposition legislator had been selected by a ZANU-PF president.
Maridadi, however, rejected the suggestion that his appointment meant he had been politically swallowed by ZANU-PF.
“I am a Zimbabwean first and foremost and I am a member of a political party secondly,” he said at the time. “I am going there as a Zimbabwean.”
The appointment itself, therefore, does not prove infiltration.
But politically, it became part of a broader pattern that has fuelled suspicion among opposition supporters whenever former opposition figures are later rewarded by the government.
Is opposition weakness really just incompetence?
For years, critics have accused Zimbabwe’s opposition of failing to build durable structures capable of challenging ZANU-PF.
The criticism intensified after the collapse of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), where internal disputes, recalls and competing claims to party authority exposed serious weaknesses in the movement’s institutional architecture.
That experience also gives fresh relevance to an argument ZiGoats explored in June: whether Chamisa’s controversial reliance on secrecy and what supporters described as “strategic ambiguity” was actually a rational response to infiltration fears — or whether it ultimately created vulnerabilities of its own.
The argument cuts both ways.
A political movement operating in a hostile environment may have legitimate reasons for keeping sensitive structures, plans and personnel confidential.
But secrecy can also become a weakness if a movement lacks clear institutional procedures, documented authority and mechanisms for resolving disputes.
The CCC crisis demonstrated precisely how damaging that gap can become.
The Tshabangu problem
In 2023, Sengezo Tshabangu emerged claiming to be the CCC’s interim secretary-general and began recalling elected opposition MPs and councillors.
Chamisa’s camp rejected Tshabangu’s authority and accused him of being part of a ZANU-PF-backed operation.
Whatever conclusion one reaches about those allegations, the episode exposed a fundamental weakness: the opposition struggled to produce an institutional mechanism strong enough to immediately settle the question of who had legitimate authority to act on behalf of the party.
That is where the infiltration argument becomes politically significant.
If opposition structures are deliberately kept loose to prevent infiltration, the same lack of clarity can potentially make them easier to capture, manipulate or challenge.
In other words, the defence against infiltration can itself create vulnerabilities.
‘Mnangagwa is not yet finished with us’
Chin’ono believes Zimbabweans should therefore look beyond the next election, rally or political announcement.
“It is a mess, but one thing nobody can deny is that Mnangagwa plans for the long term,” he said.
“He plays the long game, planting people in strategic positions and patiently waiting for the moment when they become useful.”
His central argument is that some episodes dismissed as opposition confusion may deserve closer scrutiny.
“What appears to be political confusion or opposition incompetence is sometimes the result of deliberate infiltration, patronage and manipulation,” Chin’ono said.
He added: “While the opposition focuses on the next rally or election, Mnangagwa focuses on controlling the institutions, individuals and structures that will determine the country’s political future.”
“Unfortunately, he is not yet finished with us.”
Chin’ono warns against treating politicians as ‘gods’
Chin’ono also turned his criticism towards opposition supporters themselves, arguing that political movements become weaker when their leaders are protected from scrutiny.
He said Zimbabweans often react angrily when their preferred political leaders are criticised.
“When you tell Zimbabweans what is wrong with their political system, many become absolutely furious with you,” he said.
“They call you names, insult you and accuse you of betrayal simply because they do not want their political favourites to be criticised.”
For Chin’ono, criticism should not automatically be interpreted as hostility.
“Critique is not hatred or betrayal,” he said. “It is necessary to identify weaknesses, correct mistakes, strengthen political movements and hold leaders accountable.”
His warning extends beyond ZANU-PF and the opposition.
“When citizens treat political leaders as untouchable heroes and attack anyone who questions them, they create the conditions for incompetence, manipulation and failure to thrive,” Chin’ono said.
“Politics must never become a religion, and political leaders must never be treated as gods.”
Chamisa: ‘Mugabe Almost Looks Like An Amateur’
The debate over alleged opposition infiltration has also drawn a strong response from former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa, who resigned from the party he helped form, citing infiltration and what he described as a compromised political environment.
“When Tshabangu happened and when I left the CCC snake pit, many were simply too slow to see ED’s endgame: manipulating the Constitution and using every available means to illegally extend illegitimate term in office,” Chamisa said.
He went further, arguing that Mnangagwa’s rule had surpassed the authoritarianism associated with former President Robert Mugabe.
“With what I have personally been through and what we are witnessing now, Mugabe almost looks like an amateur or a baby when it comes to dictatorship and tyranny,” Chamisa said.
He accused the Mnangagwa administration of using money, patronage and state power to influence and weaken political opponents.
“The scale of bribery, infiltration and manipulation through money, trinkets, state capture, and the abuse of power is staggering,” he said.
“It is operating at a level never imagined or witnessed before.”
Chamisa nevertheless struck a defiant tone, saying the opposition struggle would continue despite what he described as an increasingly difficult political environment.
“But then fighting evil is never easy and will not stop. The struggle continues. Hope is not lost. Good will ultimately win and defeat all evil,” he said.
“We’re starting all over again. It’s a fresh start!”
Chamisa ended his statement with the hashtags #TheNew #Citizens #Movement, signalling his continued focus on building a new political movement after his departure from the CCC.
His remarks add another layer to the debate triggered by Brilliant Dube’s appointment as a senator and Chin’ono’s claims that some of the opposition’s apparent failures may reflect a deeper strategy of infiltration and political manipulation.
Neither Chin’ono’s allegations nor Chamisa’s claims establish that specific opposition figures were deliberately planted by Mnangagwa. But coming from two prominent critics of the government, they underscore the depth of suspicion surrounding Zimbabwe’s opposition politics and the increasingly bitter struggle over who controls the country’s political future.
Leave a Reply