CCC disengages from parliament, councils

Brenna Matendere

Harare—Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party leader, Nelson Chamisa, on today (Wednesday) announced that his movement has resolved to disengage its legislators and councillors from parliament and local authorities.

He made the announcement at a media conference held in Harare.

The party head—who lost to President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the August general elections but still insists the polls were stolen—indicated that the disengagement was influenced by the recall of 15 CCC legislators and 17 councillors from Bulawayo as well as Matabeleland North and South provinces.

A party member, Sengezo Tshabangu, recently wrote to parliament and the Local Government ministry notifying them of his decision to recall the MPs and councillors, purporting to be its interim secretary general.

He is also purportedly suspended Chamisa but CCC insists he is bogus.

Tshabangu claimed that the affected MPs had seized being party members.

Parliament promptly acceded to the announcement, even though Chamisa wrote a letter to the parliament clerk, Jacob Mudenda, notifying him  that only his office was qualified to communicate with the house on matters relating to party MPs.

Chamisa emphasised that his party was not completely withdrawing from parliamentary and council business, thereby hinting a return in the future.

“We have disengaged until this issue (of the recalls) is resolved. And when I say we have disengaged, we have not said that they have withdrawn.

“They are disengaging, meaning that no business shall be transacted until remedy and justice are done through the mechanisms that we have.

“In fact, we are putting on notice, all key stakeholders in the country, including civil society, SADC, AU, the EU and the international community including the United Nations, that we have a constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe and that we have a disputed election,” said Chamisa.

He has lately been on a whirlwind tour of the country, meeting party supporters after the elections.

“We are going to run a campaign diplomatically, politically, in a peaceful manner, in a constitutional manner because there are remedies within the constitution, and we are going to exhaust them,” he said.

Chamisa invited members of the ruling Zanu PF party to join hands with CCC in finding a solution to the election-based political logjam in Zimbabwe.

“I am extending this invitation to people in Zanu PF. Come, let us reason together, you are also victims because you must know that poverty does not ask for a political party card, suffering does not know a party card. We all suffer and we are all suffering,” he said.

He acknowledged that he was aware of discontent among his supporters who expected a quick-fix solution to the disputed elections, which were also condemned by several observer missions that included the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has been reportedly engaging President Mnangagwa to find a viable solution to the post-election political crisis.

According to sources, SADC leaders have also been pushing for an extra-ordinary summit to put Zimbabwe on the agenda for deliberations over the disputed elections.