'Ban Chamisa party from using the yellow colour'

THE ruling Zanu-PF party yesterday demanded that opposition leader Nelson Chamisa's newly-formed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) be barred from using the colour yellow.

Chamisa last week dumped the MDC Alliance name, saying it had become toxic and unveiled CCC, which uses the colour yellow, departing from the MDC-A red.

Soon after the launch, party supporters and celebrities initiated a campaign to promote the brand and colour a development that has apparently angered the ruling party, which now wants to usurp the colour.

Yesterday, at the launch of the Zanu-PF by-election campaign in St Mary's, Chitungwiza, ruling party's politburo members insisted that Chamisa's CCC party should desist from using the colour.

Zanu-PF's  acting youth league secretary Tendai Chirau, provincial chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa, deputy national political commissar Omega Hungwe told dozens of party supporters that Chamisa's party must be ignored as it had nothing to offer, including the yellow colour.

The Zanu-PF party leaders described CCC's pointed finger symbol as "satanic".

"When the liberation struggle was fought, it was Zanu-PF that mobilised the masses and one of the key fundamentals was the fight for mineral resources, the fight for independence and that is why Zanu-PF chose yellow as (one of) its colours. The reason was because it was symbolising the national resources in terms of mineral wealth," Chirau said.

"So these minerals we still have them up to this day and this explains why Zimbabwe has the largest number of artisanal miners and indigenous people who own minerals. Yellow, to us, represents wealth, it's not just the colour that we took on ourselves, but most importantly, you should also take the fact that we have four colours, (that is) green and yellow, red and black. These colours will never change because of someone who wants to take them. They remain our colours, they symbolise the importance of the rich minerals that we have."

Chirau said Zanu-PF was formed before the MDC was born and, therefore, would maintain its symbols, including colours.

Masimirembwa weighed in saying: "They want to shine with the yellow colour. Yellow has always been a Zanu-PF colour. It is our special colour as Zanu-PF because we brought independence. Yellow represents the wealth of the country. The wealth of this country was brought in the country from whites by Zanu-PF and not by CCC."

He said Zanu-PF supporters should not be ashamed of wearing yellow as it belonged to the ruling party.

Hungwe also weighed in, describing Chamisa's new outfit as "satanic", adding that the Chitungwiza voters, who have consistently voted against Zanu-PF since 2000, should now be wiser.

"Voting for MDC or CCC shows that you are lost. Do you know what CCC means? It's an animal that was spoken about in the book of Revelations and it means being used by the devil or the beast," she claimed.

In line with the claims by Zanu-PF leaders, police last Thursday arrested five CCC activists and charged them with "public nuisance" for allegedly wearing yellow regalia.

Police claimed the five were arrested for blocking a pavement and disturbing the flow of human traffic in central Harare.

In response to the Zanu-PF claims, CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said: "Yellow is a colour that symbolises hope, energy and a fresh start. The CCC citizen movement has thrown Zanu-PF into panic mode so they are desperately trying to dampen the spirits of the people who are ready to win the nation for change. They won't succeed. CCC is here to stay. CCC is here ready to lead. CCC is ready to secure victory."

Observers say Zanu-PF is fretting over Chamisa's newly-found mojo after he opted not to fight former MDC Alliance secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora over the MDC Alliance name.

Chamisa accuses Mwonzora of being used by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to decimate the biggest opposition party.

Recently, Zanu-PF secretary for finance, Patrick Chinamasa took to Twitter to warn Chamisa against forming the CCC party, saying he was "playing with fire".

"Chamisa needs to be warned that he is playing with fire abusing the democratic space and the rights and freedoms that were won for the people of Zimbabwe on the battlefield. Those with eyes let them ‘eye' and those with ears let them hear," Chinamasa said.