By Isaac Zulu
PNUP leader Highvie Hamududu has said that politics is not about winning an election.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Hamududu explained that politics is about providing progressive proposals on a wide range of governance issues affecting the general populace.
He said that opposition political parties have a responsibility of providing checks and balances to the government of the day and provide alternatives to the implementation of programmes and projects by government.
Hamududu said that winning an election is a preserve of the people because they are the ones who feel the “pain of poor leadership style.”
“For me, politics is not about winning an election. It is about providing progressive proposals to the government of the day. It is about adding value to the political discourse in the country by providing effective checks and balances. Maybe I am the only one who has that perspective about how politics should be practiced,” Hamududu said.
And Hamududu said that the merging of opposition political parties should be based on principle and the commonality of party manifesto.
Hamududu said that merging political parties with the sole purpose of “grabbing political power is a misplacement of priorities and being narrow.”
“Merging political parties is a good thing if it is being done for the right reason. And not merging political parties and make a mob for the sole purpose of grabbing power from a certain political party. Then at the end of it all there is commotion,” Hamududu explained. “The merging of opposition political parties should be based on principle and commonality of manifestos. Your marketability should be based on your offer… programme of action, which is the manifesto,” he said.
He cited Kenya as one of the African countries where political alliances have worked “because of the strong agreements on manifestos.”
He has advised his fellow politicians “not to always be in election season.”
Hamududu said politicians should give the electorate a chance from always being in a campaign mode, but engage in research so that they can be able to offer credible proposals to the government of the day.
“This idea of always politicking and talking about 2026 when we are just coming from an election season is not healthy. As political leaders we should find time to do some research, which I personally refer to as a learning process,” said Hamududu. “Let us do some analysis on how we can improve on agriculture, how can we go about the mining sector. Let us critically see how we can improve the education system and health service delivery. We should not always be politicking.”
