CCC MPs defy Chamisa. They're fighting like wild cats not for democracy but to keep their gravy train seats. W Mukori

 In November last year Zanu PF announced that MPs and senators would get US$40 000 housing loan. Everyone knew this was not budgeted for, the recipients never asked for the loan and no one was expected to pay a single dollar back - in short, this was a bribe. The deputy ministers and ministers received US230 000 and US$ 500 000 respectively. The regime was going on an unbudgeted spending spree in preparation to the upcoming elections and was buying the silence of the country’s legislators to clear the way.

Nelson Chamisa admitted the US$40 000 housing loan to MPs and senators was a bribe and he asked his party’s legislators to refuse the bribe. They told him no. They reminded him that he and his MDC colleagues had received their bribes during the GNU and hence the reason thy failed to implement even one democratic reform in five years. 

Indeed, ever since the 2008 to 2013 GNU debacle, MDC/CCC leaders have shamelessly participated in flawed elections knowing Zanu PF would rig and win the election and their participation would give SADC the excuse to grant Zanu PF legitimacy. They did not mind that as long as they got the few gravy train seats Zanu PF offered to entice the opposition to participate. 

It is therefore not surprising that Nelson Chamisa was once again trying to get his elected party officials to withdraw from parliament over these Sengezo Tshabangu recalls which have cause havoc and pandemonium in the party and the officials are determined to hang on to their gravy train seats. They participated out of greed and it is for that reason that they will stay.

MDC was launched in 1999 on the promise the party would deliver the democratic changes, including the changes to stop Zanu PF rigging elections,  the nation was dying for. After 23 years, including 5 in the GNU, the party has not only failed to implement even one token change, reform, but worst of all since the GNU they have participated in flawed elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy and perpetuate the dictatorship. 

Nelson Chamisa and his MDC/CCC friends lost their political moral compass during the GNU, if they had it at all, when Mugabe bribed them with the trapping of high office and they, in return throw the reforms out of the window. It is laughable how Chamisa has now and again tried to reclaim the mantra of change champion. 

“Change Champion in Chief”, he calls himself in the CCC constitution he produced in the High Court. Yeah right! Change champion in chief who cannot name even one change he and the party has brought in 23 years, including 5 in the GNU! 

"Chamisa had ordered a withdrawal but was told in no uncertain terms that he can't withdraw MPs who campaigned using their resources, especially after he, Chamisa, took all the donated money meant for MPs' campaigns and put it to his personal use. He was cornered; he could do anything but bow to pressure," mocked Jealousy Mawarire, the Spokesperson of the National Patriotic Front, according to a report in Bulawayo 24.

“Despite the internal turmoil and the public disclosure of the party's internal challenges, CCC spokesperson Promise Mkwananzi defended the decision of the MPs to remain in parliament in a post on X. ‘It is our considered view as the Citizens Coalition for Change that we will be more impactful speaking against and calling out the regime in parliament while also guarding our zones of autonomy rather than pulling out,’ Mkwananzi explained.

Mkwananzi reiterated the party's commitment to defending the people's vote and challenged President Mnangagwa to take the initiative if the government does not want CCC legislators in Parliament. ‘If Mr. Mnangagwa does not want our legislators in Parliament, let him expel them rather than us doing the job for him. That way, the world will know who the real enemy of democracy is. We will never give in to the regime’s machinations,’ he stated.

The internal turmoil in CCC is the result of Chamisa’s refusal to have a democratic party constitution, structure and elected officials. He wanted to return total control and power for himself. He called the policy “strategic ambiguity” although there was nothing strategic or ambiguous - this was a one-man band plain and simple. 

What Sengezo Tshabangu has done was claim to be the party’s SG. He has argued that the same mucky and undemocratic process that Chamisa says elected him President of the party elected him, Sengezo, SG. There was no evidence produced in a Court of Law to prove that he was lying. Chamisa’s own strategic ambiguity has backfired on him! 

Sengezo Tshabangu has used his position as SG to recall these CCC officials he and his faction do not like. He has recalled two butches already, 24 legislators and 60 local authority councillors. He has threaten to recall more. 

The whole world knows that CCC leaders have been participating in these  flawed elections to give vote rigging Zanu PF legitimacy out of greed. The whole world also knows that CCC officials who were recalled is an internal matter, Zanu PF has nothing to do with it, and that CCC leaders are in a life and death fight to keep their gravy train seats and the benefits that entails; it is a lie that they are fighting for democracy. 

How can CCC leaders still be fighting for democracy when they traded that in for the gravy train seats a long time ago! MDC/CCC leaders have failed to implement even one token democratic reform in 23 years precisely because they have sold out on democracy, reforms and free elections. If the people of Zimbabwe want an end to this curse of rigged elections and bad governance then they must wake up to this political reality - CCC leaders are fighting for gravy train seats and not democracy!