Zanu-PF's fingerprints in CCC chaos

THE ruling Zanu-PF party says former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) president Nelson Chamisa should be probed over how he handled finances during his tenure at the helm of the opposition political formation.

Chamisa, the CCC's poster boy, dumped the two-year-old political party after realising that the original CCC had been "contaminated, bastardised, hijacked by Zanu-PF through the abuse of State institutions."

This came after self-imposed interim secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu went on a firing spree, recalling party legislators and councillors.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Chris Mutsvangwa said Chamisa must account for the day when he took over an organisation called MDC/CCC as there were funds that were received in different names.

"I hope he is not jumping to spend all his time at the courts giving evidence against all the people who may have claims against his days when he was at the helm of the CCC party. He cannot be immune before the courts the law," Mutsvangwa told journalists at a Press conference on Saturday.

"Judging by the grievances of those who formed the party who are now coming back to claim it, they have a gamut of grievances and these are not coming from Zanu-PF. It's an internal matter. Pachanakidza (things are getting interesting), I can assure you. The drama is about to unfold, Mutsvangwa said gleefully.

It was a dead giveaway statement that unmasked Zanu-PF's hand in the chaos that was brewing in CCC. It came despite repeated denials by the ruling party that its hands are clean and it has nothing to do with the internal cleavages in the two-year-old political formation.

Chamisa had become a thorn in the flesh of Zanu-PF and its leaders after he stopped the party from garnering a two-thirds majority in last year's harmonised elections. With its resources and State machinery in tow, the ruling party failed to attain its desire to rule uncontested.

The burden lies on Zanu-PF to show that it has nothing to do with the chaos in the opposition political formation. In the court of public opinion, Zanu-PF's fingerprints are visible the same way they were in the disintegration of the MDC-T and MDC Alliance.

That the ruling party is fixated on what Chamisa has done when the economy is crying out for a bold intervention, boggles the mind.

It is not only Mutsvangwa that is obsessed with CCC. Some senior government officials have also joined the fray, pointing to a well-calculated plan to decimate the alternative. In the scheme of things, the result is to govern unopposed where only pliable opposition political parties exist.

In 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa created the Political Actors Dialogue (Polad), a coalition of fringe political parties whose leaders also found a seat on the gravy train. Polad turned out to be a band of cheerleaders. Polad was billed to help Mnangagwa with solutions on key pressing matters.

However, it became a joke after all its proposals, especially on the amendment of the Constitution, were ignored. It later dawned on the principals that it was a window-dressing exercise to create a semblance of consultations.