Defacto secretary general of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Sengezo Tshabangu’s name is among a list of 14 lawmakers nominated by the party to fill posts left vacant following the recalling of several members of parliament and senators, which resulted in then leader Nelson Chamisa to quit two weeks ago saying CCC has been hijacked by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu PF.
In a list contained in a state statutory instrument, former lawmakers Kucaca Phulu and Nomvula Mguni are set to return to parliament with colleagues, who were aligned to Douglas Mwonzora’s Movement for Democratic Change and Tendai Biti’s People’s Democratic Party, a breakaway from the late Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC. Biti and Professor Welshman Ncube, who led another faction of the MDC formation and are now in CCC, have distanced himself from Tshabangu.
The list of nominees has rattled the CCC base with Tshabangu’s close associates - former Senate Khaliphani Pugeni and Albert Mhlanga - fuming over their exclusion. The latter said he has already filed an objection at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, seeking the nullification of the nomination of what he called “friends of the chefs” by Tshabangu, who has allegedly caused havoc in the party.
Mhlanga said, “We will take Tshabangu to court if need be but at the moment we have filed our complaint with ZEC. Wait for fireworks.”
Mhlanga and Pugeni are believed to have compiled their own list and submitted it to the electoral body, accused by CCC and other opposition parties of mishandling the 2023 general elections and Mnangagwa’s victory.
But Tshabangu said Mhlanga and Pugeni have already been given a chance to represent other parties at local authority and national level.
“It is their democratic right to object to the list like any other citizen. There were only two lists in a population of about 400,000 people in Bulawayo in particular. If you are to streamline it, you are talking about the membership of the Citizens Coalition for Change maybe which was 200,000. So, there were few vacant positions for deployment in the Senate and House of Assembly. Yes, it’s understandable for them to feel otherwise.”
He said two have already served the people of Bulawayo and Matabeleland region.
“Mhlanga was given the opportunity. He served as a councilor and deputy mayor and member of parliament. Nobody complained when he was deployed in those positions and so is Mr. Khaliphani Pugeni who served as a senator and (there were) so many people who could have served in that position but he was chosen by the late Morgan Tsvangirai and he served in that capacity. So, we can’t all fit in these positions. My understanding is that we need to support whoever is there (nominees) but if they are to object, if they are to write to ZEC, I will tell you, they wrote their lists and these are some of the reasons why they were left out. They had heir own lists, they had a parallel process, it didn’t work and again it’s not going to work.”
Pugeni said he was “devastated by Tshabangu’s nomination process and I have just noted that people want to use me and when they have achieved their mission they dump me.”
Tshabangu, who has dismissed claims that he is a Zanu PF puppet, has become the leader of the CCC faction as no one has shown interest in taking over the vacant post abandoned by Chamisa despite the presence of two vice presidents – Biti and Ncube. It’s unclear his faction has a constitution.
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