WHILE the Nelson Chamisa-led Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) is attempting to present itself as a ‘new party’ created to ‘save’ Zimbabwe, the fault-lines in this so-called new political outfit are too glaring to ignore.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Nick Mangwana recently tweeted: “No elected leadership, No Constitution, No checks and Balances, No processes, That’s not a political party, it’s an OLIGARCHY.”

An oligarchy is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as: “A small group of people having control of a country or organisation.”

There are many glaring weaknesses in the CCC and it is true that the opposition has a long way to go in terms of ideology, plan, structures and many aspects of leadership.

The party, however, thrives on falsely accusing the ruling Party ZANU PF instead of dealing with their house issues. 

For example, CCC deputy spokesperson Gift Ostallos Siziba recently accused ZANU PF of plotting to ‘infiltrate their movement’. 

Siziba is former University of Zimbabwe Student Representative Council president, founder member of #Tajamuka and former public relations officer for Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ).

The accusations by Siziba are not surprising.

Prior to the previous presidential election and the March 26 2022 by-elections, ZANU PF was accused of denying opposition political parties space. 

The loss of the MDC Alliance then was followed by an outcry that the 2018 elections were not free and fair.

It will not be surprising to hear CCC crying foul after losing elections come 2023 because the opposition in Zimbabwe has never learnt to accept defeat. 

This paper’s job is not to raise problems related to party performances. 

However, when the confusion involves names of  the unconcerned, then CCC’s hallucinations of winning 2023 elections ought to be interrogated.

Meanwhile, CCC is a collection of friends without positions of power and proper administration of party affairs.

Otherwise, as much as they want to contend, their contention will start and end on social media because only a Congress can legitimise them. 

Who worries about a team that does not have a locus standi to run as an opposition party?

On April 19 2022, Freeman Chari tweeted: “CCC will not win elections with an organising department that still walks around with exercise books. 

CCC will not win with a finance department that has no clue how to fundraise.

CCC will not win elections with just volunteers, it needs 32 full-time positions & $300K (three hundred thousand) for 14 months.”

The opposition fundraising has been largely promiscuous intercourse with the Western institutions working against the Government. 

This paper has written extensively on efforts of the opposition variants used as Western vests worn by those who want to hurt Zimbabwe in return for its assertive economic efforts that link back to the Land Reform Programme.

Besides, opposition reliance on Western donor funding means that the rights the opposition is ever pushing for are not for the ordinary Zimbabwean but for the West.

In retrospect, former Sunday Mail editor Mabasa Sasa is on record for submitting that CCC is just trying to force itself into the annals of history. 

Wrote Sasa: “An immediate criticism after the unveiling of the latest manifestation of the opposition is that there is nothing in it directly speaking to being Zimbabwean, being situated in Zimbabwe, or working for Zimbabweans, 

CCC speaks to no ideological grounding, and not by mistake. It is part of a calculated, co-ordinated counter revolution to make nationalism & patriotism subservient to a deliberately amorphous ‘change.’

To borrow from Amir Hussain, this is a politics that is ‘about’ consumerism where ideas are packaged like products with no inner meanings beyond the description on the wrapper.

CCC is a post ideological brand of politics that is long on impression and images, but woefully short on content. 

And to support it requires willful castration of intellect.”

The Americans have already shown skepticism about Chamisa’s scoring an unlikely victory in the 2023 harmonised elections due to his indecisiveness and failure to assert himself as a vibrant leader. 

Indeed the CCC has a long way to go in terms of regularising their operations. 

Their defeat in the 2023 harmonised elections is a foregone conclusion.