CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) acting president Welshman Ncube has accused former party leader Nelson Chamisa of turning the fledging opposition party into a one-man show before he resigned.
Chamisa resigned from CCC last month citing infiltration
after self-imposed interim secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu snatched the
party from him and recalled legislators and councillors.
Chamisa unveiled the CCC in January 2022 after losing
control of the MDC Alliance to Douglas Mwonzora.
CCC has since split into three factions: One led by
Chamisa’s loyalists, another by Tshabangu and the one which has coalesced under
the MDC 2019 structures, with Ncube emerging as its first acting president.
Ncube, Tendai Biti and Lynette Karenyi-Kore are acting CCC
presidents on a 90-day rotational basis.
In a wide-ranging interview with Bulawayo-based online news
channel CITE, Ncube indirectly took a dig at Chamisa’s leadership style, which
he said created the crisis bedevilling the opposition.
“We got here because we now had a situation where(by)
collectively, the democratic collective leadership no longer worked as one and
we were unable to meet as elected individuals, as elected leadership, to
address the challenges that we were facing,” he said.
Ncube said there were fundamental differences in the party,
with key meetings and other platforms for engagement suspended.
“We had suspended meetings of the national council. Some of
us believe that we are fighting Zanu PF which is authoritarian, which is
undemocratic and which has one centre of power. We must demonstrate that we are
the opposite of Zanu PF,” he said.
“We must do while in opposition things we are expected to
do when we get into government, not running an autocratic, an authoritarian,
theocratic opposition then expect sincere genuine people to believe that once
in power, you no longer believe in autocracy and theocracy.
“These are the differences we had in opposition.”
Ncube said he was elected to be the first acting
vice-president of the opposition because of his seniority.
“Now that the president of the party had resigned and
dissociated himself with the party, it was necessary for us to step up to the
plate, to take responsibility and to ensure that the party is brought back on
track, and hence that we will rotate,” he said.
“And the standing committee decided that I will go first as
being the most senior of the three vice-presidents as elected at Gweru, so
that, therefore, I have been mandated in the next 90 days to do all that I can,
working with the other vice-presidents, working with the secretariat of the
party, working with the rest of the departments of the party to address the
challenges that the party face today.”
Ncube revealed that he last spoke to Chamisa two months
ago.
He distanced himself from Tshabangu.
Previous reports said Biti and Ncube were some of the
disgruntled party bigwigs behind Tshabangu as they sought to snatch the party
from Chamisa.
Chamisa has not announced his next move since he stepped
down as CCC leader.
Some CCC legislators have chosen to stay put, saying they
could not resign in solidarity with Chamisa because of lack of clarity on the
way forward. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment