Sengezo Tshabangu, a former MDC-T official from
Matabeleland North province, last week brew a shocker when he wrote to National
Assembly speaker Jacob Mudenda purporting to recall elected representatives
from the country’s main opposition party.
Tshabangu claimed to be CCC’s interim secretary-general and
his daring move has been compared with that of MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora,
who seized control of the MDC Alliance and went on to purge MPs and councillors
that were aligned to Chamisa.
The move severely weakened the opposition and allowed Zanu
PF to pass legislation that closed the democratic space with ease and Mwonzora
was accused of being on the ruling party’s payroll.
CCC has also accused Tshabangu of being a Zanu PF plant,
who worked with the Central Intelligence Organisation-linked Forever Associate
Zimbabwe (Faz) to field double candidates for the opposition in the August 23
and 24 harmonised elections.
Zanu PF, which came short of a twothirds majority in the
National Assembly, cannot pass constitutional amendments with its numbers and
speculation is that plans are afoot to whittle down opposition figures through
arrests and other unorthodox means.
Chamisa, who has been holding feedback meetings around the
country after he rejected President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s controversial election
victory as a “gigantic fraud”, was asked on social media what he was doing
concerning the Tshabangu issue.
“He is not a member (of CCC),” he said on (formerly
Twitter).
“We know our members. We have solid records.”
On Friday, Chamisa said his MPs and councillors could not
be recalled by Tshabangu.
“We won’t allow our MPs to be subjected to nonsense,”
Chamisa said during a consultative meeting held in Bulawayo with his MPs and
councillors.
Mudenda is yet to make a decision on the “recalls”, but the
Zanu PF politburo members' impartiality was questioned during the Mwonzora era
as some of the recalls were reversed by the courts.
Binga North legislator Prince Dubeko Sibanda, who is among
15 legislators and 17 councillors that were “recalled” by Tshabangu, said
police said they would do some consultations before they could open a case.
“I went to the police to file a report, but I did not get
an RRB or CR number,” Sibanda told The Standard.
“They said they would get back to me after some
consultations.”
Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube,
referred questions to national spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.
Nyathi said: “They should seek assistance from the Bulawayo
Metropolitan provincial officer. I am sure they will be assisted.”
According to the CCC, Tshabangu is a Zanu PF proxy, being
used to force by-elections as the ruling party seeks to win more seats to get a
two-thirds majority.
CCC has described Tshabangu as a “petty criminal”.
“The only person, who can recall anyone in the party is
president Nelson Chamisa and his leadership, so any other machination is
child's play,” party spokesperson, Promise Mkwananzi said.
“Our people must remain focused on pursuing a fresh
election.
“We don’t have that (secretary-general) post in our party.
“We don’t have to do anything on the Tshabangu’s stunt. He
is just a petty criminal.” Tshabangu told The Standard that he was “targeting
criminals around Chamisa.”
“These are internal differences,” he claimed.
“We are trying to correct these imbalances. We are trying
to bring the party back to its founding core values.
“We are removing criminals around the president — criminals
who were born through an illegitimate process.
“They are a product of an illegitimate bereka mwana process
so we want to remove them.
“That is why we had to fight to ensure that all the
candidates whom the people had chosen were on the ballot.”
All the candidates that Tshabangu nominated lost in the
elections to CCC members.
Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme warned CCC against
downplaying Tshabangu’s move to recall its MPs.
“This exposes the party to manipulation, abuse, and hijack
by opportunistic external political structures,” Saungweme sid.
“If there was a system from the beginning, it would not
have been easy for Tshabangu to try and recall CCC legislators.
“As it is, they face a mammoth task to overturn Tshabangu’s
move.
“The attempt to recall the CCC may look unreasonable, but
may affect the party.
“When Mwonzora started his recalls in 2021, many thought it
wouldn’t happen, but he succeeded.
“This is a serious threat to the party and cannot be taken
lightly.”
In terms of section 129(1)(k) of the constitution,
legislators and councils can be recalled from Parliament through a letter by a
political party to the speaker of Parliament.
Institute for Security Studies’ Southern Africa programme
head, Piers Pigou, said CCC was in trouble.
“This is all about individual interests and crude political
agendas and has little to do with the interests of the electorate,” Pigou said.
“This issue is getting way too much attention, but only
because CCC slept and walked into this recall madness in the last Parliament.
“The apparent willing participation of Parliament and the
speaker’s office underscores once again why this office should not be in the
hands of a partisan politician such as Jacob Mudenda.”
Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa said the ruling
party had nothing to do with the attempts to recall CCC elected represantatives.
“We have nothing to do with CCC squabbles,” Mutsvangwa
said.
“Their house is burning, and there is so much infighting it
has nothing to do with Zanu PF. We are busy governing.
“The president has already appointed cabinet, and we are
preoccupied with growing this economy.
“We are not looking in the rear view mirror. We are looking
in the windshield of the future.
“There is no other election coming. “There is no threat
coming from the defeated CCC at all.
“The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission decided and gave a
verdict.” Standard
0 comments:
Post a Comment