Chamisa's Lobengula-Magwese candidate in a Mai Titi spot of bother

In a twist that would expose the weaknesses of CCC as an opaque party based on Advocate Nelson Chamisa's controversial ‘strategic ambiguity' politics also known as 'sukukuviri', while also exposing the blind spots of the party's candidate vetting method, reports from Bulawayo say Eric Gono whom Chamisa imposed as CCC's parliamentary candidate for Lobengula-Magwegwe constituency – when the community preferred and selected Tendai Nyathi – did not do the community service to which he was sentenced, and did not appeal his conviction and sentence; after he and Mlandu Ncube and Felix Mhaka were found guilty of and sentenced for public violence in July 2018.

The case was widely reported in the media in 2018.

Gono, Mlandu and Mhaka were sentenced to 12 months imprisonment, but the court suspended six months on condition of good behaviour. For the other six months, the trio was ordered to do community service.

Unlike Gono, Ncube and Mhaka reportedly appealed both their conviction and sentence, and their appeal is said to be still pending.

Reports say like Mai Titi, Gono quietly skipped his community service, but did not appeal his sentence and conviction.

Following his nomination last Wednesday as CCC's imposed candidate for Lobengula-Magwegwe constituency, it's not clear whether Gono in fact had a police clearance, and if so what he or ZEC did with it.

Part of the challenge is that police's database is mainly manual and does not lend itself to rapid retrieval of criminal records, for purposes like clearing election candidates for the Nomination Court.

If the Mai Titi case is anything to go by, ZPR would be in a better position to confirm whether Gono did or did not perform his community service sentence.

In the meantime, Gono is in a Mai Titi spot of bother, as both his nomination as CCC parliamentary candidate for Lobengula-Magwegwe constituency and his freedom hang in the balance!