Opinion / Columnist
Strategic ambiguity rocks Chamisa's CCC
28 Jul 2023 at 16:34hrs | Views
When Advocate Nelson Chamisa first declared to Blessing Mhlanga of HStv News that 'STRATEGIC AMBIGUITY' was the "biggest thing" in his and CCC's communication to "CONFUSE THE ENEMY", many thought "the enemy" that Chamisa was referring to was ZanuPF when in fact it was, as it still is, "the enemy" within CCC.
This is immediately clear from how Chamisa and his inner circle – particularly Fadzai Mahere and Ostallos Siziva – have used 'strategic ambiguity' to communicate CCC's lack of a constitution, CCC's lack of structures and CCC's prolonged and opaque candidate selection process in ways that have – more than anyone else – have actually confused former MDC-A leaders who – like Advocate Chamisa himself – expected to hold in CCC the same positions they held in the MDC-A up to January 2022 when CCC was formed; ex-MDC-A members who expected to automatically become CCC members in January 2022; and prospective CCC parliamentary and local authority candidates for the 2023 harmonised general election, who expected to go through the same open and transparent primary election process used by the MDC over the years.
In effect, Chamisa and his cohorts have used ‘strategic ambiguity' to say what they do not mean, and to mean what they do not say.
The purpose of the strategy has been to purge CCC of his rivals and their perceived supporters, and – as will be clear from CCC's candidate list submitted to the Nomination Court today – to replace them with loyalists drawn from Chamisa's former Zinasu ranks, his fellow polytechnic alumni and from a loose network of self-styled evangelical pastors to which he belongs.
Accordingly, today CCC is a sea of confusion.
More than anyone else, the opposition party's rank-and-file don't know whether they're going or coming, while reports are swelling that the candidates they selected have been dumped and replaced by candidates who either lost or who did not even participate in the so-called community caucuses.
So:
*The fact that CCC has no structures means that CCC supporters who have taken themselves to be CCC members since January 2022 when CCC was formed have nowhere to go within their communities to find out or to confirm what exactly is going on or what is the true position about anything, let alone about the full, final and authoritative CCC list of 2023 parliamentary and local authority candidates.
*The fact that CCC has no structures explains why CCC has no offices or office bearers and why members of the so-called Independent Candidate Selection Panel have been operating from all sorts of insecure places including public toilets, putting at risk the personal details of aspiring candidates that are in the unsecured nomination papers.
*The fact that CCC has no structures explains why the likes of Gift Ostallos Siziba have used ‘strategic ambiguity' to peddle outright falsehoods like this tweet below, which he posted last night:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">President Chamisa has filed all his nomination papers.<br>1 Presidential candidate <br>210 Members of Parliament<br>1970 Councillors. <br><br>Let's go! <a href="https://t.co/2cCUMMdAxA">pic.twitter.com/2cCUMMdAxA</a></p>— Gift Ostallos Siziba (@Cde_Ostallos) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cde_Ostallos/status/1671167070971768834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
*It's a blatant lie that CCC submitted 1,970 local authority candidates yesterday. The fact is that CCC will not be able to reach the 1970 number, at any time during the sitting of the Nomination Court today.
*CCC is struggling to find local authority candidates in a number of provinces, such as Mashonaland Central.
*After the sitting of the Nomination Court today, it will be clear for everyone to see, that since the formation of the as yet to be launched CCC in January 2022, Chamisa's thrust and single-minded purpose has been to PURGE CCC of the old guard associated with earlier MDC formations like Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T, Dr Thokozani Khupe's MDC-T, Douglas Mwonzora's MDC-A, Welshman Ncube MDC, Job Sikhala's MDC99 and have's PDP.
*CCC's opaque candidate selection process was a purging process by design, that is why the process was riddled with intrigue from start to finish.
*The fact that CCC does not have a constitution means that there's no recourse or internal remedies for those who feel victimised by Chamisa's purging process which he disguised as a candidate selection process, when it in fact it was a ruse to produce a predetermined outcome.
Why is the foregoing important to understand?
It is important because, with the apparent acquiescence of sections of the mainstream media and some diplomatic interests, CCC styles itself as the main opposition party in Zimbabwe, and the government-in-waiting.
As such, CCC deserves as much scrutiny as the incumbents who seek to retain power!
This is immediately clear from how Chamisa and his inner circle – particularly Fadzai Mahere and Ostallos Siziva – have used 'strategic ambiguity' to communicate CCC's lack of a constitution, CCC's lack of structures and CCC's prolonged and opaque candidate selection process in ways that have – more than anyone else – have actually confused former MDC-A leaders who – like Advocate Chamisa himself – expected to hold in CCC the same positions they held in the MDC-A up to January 2022 when CCC was formed; ex-MDC-A members who expected to automatically become CCC members in January 2022; and prospective CCC parliamentary and local authority candidates for the 2023 harmonised general election, who expected to go through the same open and transparent primary election process used by the MDC over the years.
In effect, Chamisa and his cohorts have used ‘strategic ambiguity' to say what they do not mean, and to mean what they do not say.
The purpose of the strategy has been to purge CCC of his rivals and their perceived supporters, and – as will be clear from CCC's candidate list submitted to the Nomination Court today – to replace them with loyalists drawn from Chamisa's former Zinasu ranks, his fellow polytechnic alumni and from a loose network of self-styled evangelical pastors to which he belongs.
Accordingly, today CCC is a sea of confusion.
More than anyone else, the opposition party's rank-and-file don't know whether they're going or coming, while reports are swelling that the candidates they selected have been dumped and replaced by candidates who either lost or who did not even participate in the so-called community caucuses.
So:
*The fact that CCC has no structures means that CCC supporters who have taken themselves to be CCC members since January 2022 when CCC was formed have nowhere to go within their communities to find out or to confirm what exactly is going on or what is the true position about anything, let alone about the full, final and authoritative CCC list of 2023 parliamentary and local authority candidates.
*The fact that CCC has no structures explains why CCC has no offices or office bearers and why members of the so-called Independent Candidate Selection Panel have been operating from all sorts of insecure places including public toilets, putting at risk the personal details of aspiring candidates that are in the unsecured nomination papers.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">President Chamisa has filed all his nomination papers.<br>1 Presidential candidate <br>210 Members of Parliament<br>1970 Councillors. <br><br>Let's go! <a href="https://t.co/2cCUMMdAxA">pic.twitter.com/2cCUMMdAxA</a></p>— Gift Ostallos Siziba (@Cde_Ostallos) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cde_Ostallos/status/1671167070971768834?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 20, 2023</a></blockquote>
*It's a blatant lie that CCC submitted 1,970 local authority candidates yesterday. The fact is that CCC will not be able to reach the 1970 number, at any time during the sitting of the Nomination Court today.
*CCC is struggling to find local authority candidates in a number of provinces, such as Mashonaland Central.
*After the sitting of the Nomination Court today, it will be clear for everyone to see, that since the formation of the as yet to be launched CCC in January 2022, Chamisa's thrust and single-minded purpose has been to PURGE CCC of the old guard associated with earlier MDC formations like Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T, Dr Thokozani Khupe's MDC-T, Douglas Mwonzora's MDC-A, Welshman Ncube MDC, Job Sikhala's MDC99 and have's PDP.
*CCC's opaque candidate selection process was a purging process by design, that is why the process was riddled with intrigue from start to finish.
*The fact that CCC does not have a constitution means that there's no recourse or internal remedies for those who feel victimised by Chamisa's purging process which he disguised as a candidate selection process, when it in fact it was a ruse to produce a predetermined outcome.
Why is the foregoing important to understand?
It is important because, with the apparent acquiescence of sections of the mainstream media and some diplomatic interests, CCC styles itself as the main opposition party in Zimbabwe, and the government-in-waiting.
As such, CCC deserves as much scrutiny as the incumbents who seek to retain power!
Source - Twitter
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