CCC deputy presidents Mr Tendai Biti and Professor Welshman Ncube snubbed the party’s election campaign launch amid reports that the party could be headed for yet another split.
This comes as CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa has been
side-lining the party’s old brass, replacing it with former student unionists
loyal to him.
It also comes as Chamisa threw Mr Biti under the proverbial
bus and rigged the Harare East candidate selection process against him because
he believed that the later had a hand in his failure to secure funding for the
elections during his recent visit to the United States.
On the other hand, Prof Ncube allegedly feels like he is
continuously being pushed to the periphery in the so-called building of the new
movement.
The two were conspicuously absent from the Sunday rally,
revealing the widening fissures in the opposition party that have been on fire
since its chaotic candidate selection process that resulted in the fielding of
double and triple candidates.
Prof Ncube yesterday admitted being absent, saying he was
attending to other commitments.
“I had other things which I was doing on the day which were
very important,” he said.
Mr Biti said he attended, but was seated among the crowds.
“I was there in Gweru, sitting in the terraces; that you
didn’t see (me) is your problem,” he said.
Sources within the CCC yesterday said the relationship
between Chamisa and his two lieutenants has broken down beyond repair.
“The relationship is now nasty as Biti and Ncube are
contemplating dumping Chamisa whom they perceive as a dictator. Several other
senior party members are disgruntled with the way the party is being run.
“Mr Biti is still bitter after losing his Harare East seat
while Prof Ncube feels he has never been recognised in the building of the new
movement,” said the source.
After his bid to secure millions to fund his election
campaign went up in smoke as the United States shut the door in his face citing
a litany of undemocratic practices, and also abuse of previous funds—Chamisa
blamed all that on Mr Biti, Washington’s preferred opposition leader.
For his ill-fated trip to the United States, which was
undertaken under a veil of secrecy and subterfuge, Mr Chamisa, whose political
moniker is “cobra”, decided to manipulate the candidate selection process to
ensure Mr Biti would not return to the House of Assembly.
On the other hand, Mr Biti is angry that Mr Chamisa is
ungrateful because he rescued the party at the MDC Alliance Gweru congress in
2019 where he availed US$150 000, the sources said.
In the US, Chamisa, who had earlier received encouragement
from the USAID, sought to coax the American government—through its illicit
financing of regime change vehicles—to provide US$37 281 277 million for his
election campaign with the immediate need for about US$340 000 for nomination
fees for himself and his candidates.
He was also seeking US$10 million for polling agents who
would be paid US$200 per day. On top of that he also wanted money to purchase 1
million T-shirts and an equal number of campaigning paraphernalia such as
bandanas.
In all those efforts, he drew blanks.
Well-placed sources said in his meeting with the US
Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs officials, Mr Chamisa was shown
unflattering reports from the US Embassy in Harare which were prepared by the
Charge d’ affairs Ellaine French and acting mission director Ramses Gauthier.
“The report that he received stated that CCC was a one-man
party, he was told that the US does not support undemocratic institutions, he
was told that he did not hold a congress even though he had ample time to do
so, in short he was told he did not have a party but was an independent
candidate,” the source said.
Apart from being confronted with details of his
undemocratic credentials—he was also told that his party lacks that
intellectual aspect for any serious organisation seeking to win elections, and
had no bank account where the money could, if availed, be deposited. Herald
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