Chamisa CCC faction MPs meet

The majority of opposition CCC MPs loyal to former party leader Nelson Chamisa will meet in Harare tomorrow to endorse Chipinge South MP Clifford Hlatywayo as the new Leader of the House in Parliament.

The CCC MPs, who return to parliament tomorrow after a suspension, will also elect new legislators to parliamentary

portfolio committees to replace those who have been recalled by self-imposed secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu.

The meeting to be held in Belvedere in the capital will be presided over by Chamisa's political loyalists who include veteran opposition leader and former MP Jameson Timba, Amos Chibaya and party spokesman Promise Mkhwananzi who recently declared himself the leader.

Tshabangu's faction has put in place the MDC Alliance's 2019 Gweru Congress structure as the interim party leadership.

This effectively means that Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti and Lynette Karenyi-Kore are the ones in charge of the party from Tshabangu's point of view.

Attempts by the Ncube group to put Karenyi-Kore as the acting party leader recently failed.

Ncube and his camp have also appointed Nqobizitha Mlilo as the spokesman, assisted by Decent Bajila and Caston Mateu.

However, Mateu has now defected back to Chamisa's faction which recently held a Citizens National Assembly meeting in Harare to map the way forward.

Hlatywayo is the favourite to become Leader of the House, replacing Chibaya who was recalled.

The MPs also have to elect a new Chief Whip to take over from Hlatywayo.

The CCC is engulfed in turmoil and chaos after Chamisa resigned in protest and exasperation following Tshabangu's hijacking of the party supported by the executive, parliament and judiciary, as well as security agents and bitter individuals.

Chamisa said the party was now infiltrated and contaminated by internal impostors and Zanu-PF agents.

Tshabangu recalled elected MPs, senators, councillors and mayors claiming they had resigned.

This gave Zanu-PF more seats to win a two-thirds majority in the House of Assembly, not in Senate.

So Zanu-PF alone cannot make constitutional amendments unless supported by the opposition senators or those representing other senate constituencies.

Tshabangu's controversial actions have destroyed the opposition, while helping Zanu-PF to consolidate power and its authoritarian control over the nation which is has ruined over extended periods of governance failures with disastrous consequences.