CCC crisis deepens

THE crisis in the opposition CCC is deepening and broadening, with senior members and advisors to CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa publicly firing political salvos and diatribes interpretively directed towards former legislators and what are supposed to be his two deputies, Mr Tendai Biti and Professor Welshman Ncube.

The two ex-legislators have been on the receiving end of vicious and unrestrained attacks on online platform X (formerly Twitter) by Mr Chamisa's allies, who are suggesting that Prof Ncube and Mr Biti are behind the recall of MPs and councillors by the party's interim secretary general, Mr Sengezo Tshabangu.

Mr Chamisa's close associates allege that Mr Biti and his fellow People's Democratic Party (PDP) members who followed him into the MDC-A and then the CCC, are conniving with Mr Tshabangu to precipitate the implosion of CCC.

Yesterday, X posts by academic Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya and Advocate Thabani Mpofu, both close associates of Mr Chamisa, inferred that the recalls of Harare Mayor Mr Ian Makone and his deputy Ms Kudzai Kadzombe were meant to facilitate the re-instatement of former Harare Mayor Mr Jacob Mafume, a close ally of Mr Biti.

The public attacks led the CCC interim deputy spokesperson Mr Gift Ostallos Siziba to call for a press conference in Harare to address the internal situation among other matters.

Prof Ncube last posted on his X handle on October 24, and Mr Biti on November 4, with neither responding to the latest attacks.

Dr Ruhanya, in one of his posts, urged the CCC base to direct their anger on the two (Mr Biti and Prof Ncube) and "speak out" indicating that "its gloves off, and a "thorough fight back is required".

"Don't wine and dine with these people. Don't laugh with them; this is not a laughing matter."

Without proof, both Advocate Mpofu and Dr Ruhanya tried to drag Zanu-PF into the opposition's muddied situation to gain political sympathy and traction, optics that failed to ignite their expectations.

"The CCC rebels most of them who were in PDP are plotting to recall Hon @advocatemahere, Hon @Cde_Ostallos, @ChibayaCCC arguing that the pillars of @nelsonchamisa must fall. But this is all political tomfoolery because they have ZERO political base. CCC base must speak out!," Dr Ruhanya posted on X.

In further posts, Dr Ruhanya wrote about the history of the characters purportedly handholding Mr Tshabangu saying "they undermined Morgan Tsvangirai in MDC and failed".

"Now they have undermined CCC and @nelsonchamisa and they have failed. Same characters, same tactics, same results, FAILURE", he wrote, indicating that they are "trying to create bogus internal divisions".

Prof Ncube and Mr Biti led splinter groups from the main opposition MDC in 2005 and 2015 respectively as the MDC-N and PDP. They were later accepted into the mainstream opposition in 2018 under the MDC-Alliance banner to forge a united force against the ruling Zanu-PF.

According to Dr Ruhanya, there is "no more rehabilitation this time around" as a "political rubicon has been crossed" by Prof Ncube and Mr Biti.

Advocate Mpofu also posted on X saying: "Is the purported recall of Mayor Makone designed to reinstate someone as the Mayor of CoH?"

Responding to questions from journalists yesterday on the internal contradictions and absence of elite consensus, Mr Siziba failed to downplay the widening fissures and acknowledged that there are some contradictions within the opposition party.

"No organisation is without contradictions. We do not criminalise holding a different view because we believe in sharpening ideas," he said.