By Elizabeth Sitotombe
TO be or not to be a CCC candidate?
Ultimately the decision was for Chamisa to make.
Candidates were imposed while bigwigs were dethroned.
It was chaotic.
We said he is a dictator — and indeed he proved it.
The Nomination Court closed on Wednesday June 21.
The whole country watched them, these CCC hopefuls, prancing aimlessly in sheer confusion. For some CCC candidates the Nomination Court closed while they were still organising their documents.
They were not to blame really, there were some double nominations; Marondera Central for instance, Caston Matewu and Misheck Manyere (pictured) were both nominated for the same constituency.
Freddy Michael Masarirevu, from St Marys, was first told he was a candidate, and then they said he wasn’t, and then once again they said he was a candidate until he simply got tired of the merry-go-round.
Some were rejected due to signatory issues.
Seats were left uncontested as the opposition failed to field candidates.
But it took three months of them claiming they had everything under control.
It was to confuse the enemy (ZANU PF) they said!
It was an inhouse purge by a dictator in the making.
Zimbabwe needs progressive leaders, not confused leaders — and clearly, Chamisa is not a progressive leader.
Hopewell Chin’ono said it all: “A democratic party and government in waiting shouldn’t be run like a tuck shop.”
You can almost feel sorry for the CSOs, the Western sponsors and the trade unions, all working tirelessly in the background to prop up a leader clearly destined for defeat.
No doubt, they are hoping for an election victory that will never be.
Some of them will take comfort in lining their pockets with funds embezzled from their sponsors and donors.
Meanwhile, Peter Mutasa, the former ZCTU leader, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) president and the longest serving Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers Union (ZIBAWU) general secretary, stands accused of looting from a whopping US$1,5 million grant from USAID, funded by Solidarity Centre.
Solidarity Centre is a US-based international workers’ rights organisation
They fund unions that advocate “…popular political participation…” and those that promote “…citizen voice and civic expression…” while demonising governments they want to topple.
Mutasa is purportedly traipsing around the country hosting labour forums and pocketing a whopping US$4 000 per every forum.
He is allegedly sharing part of the loot with the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) leader Munyaradzi Gwisai, Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) leader Obert Masaraure and a few selected friends from Unions who also belong to his ZCTU faction.
The first event took place at Jameson Hotel on June 9 2023, where 100 participants got US$10 each but signed and forged attendance sheets at the ZIBAWU office had a blotted figure.
Again, ZIBAWU hosted a youth conference on June 13 2023 in Bulawayo, with main focus on ‘civic and political participation’.
The aim was to, “…build fearless cadres who are ready to receive the button stick and move forward.”
The ‘fearless cadres’ are to be used to support the opposition of course.
But for Mutasa et al, it is a money making venture.
On June 14, they held a women’s conference where, again, Mutasa lined his pockets with donor funds.
According to inside sources, Mutasa is abusing donor funding to further his interests in regaining control of ZCTU after losing the election to Florence Taruvinga in 2021.
Taruvinga replaced Mutasa after members saw through the latter’s act.
Instead of representing workers’ interests, he was shamelessly trying to settle cheap political scores with the Government on behalf of his masters.
Recently, The Patriot revealed how Mutasa was planning to form a so-called labour forum.
It would be parallel to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), a body that has always purported to represent the ‘interests’ of workers in the country.
The intention would be to stage demos using the ZCTU provincial structures Mutasa formed during his days as ZCTU secretary-general.
These are provincial labour committees that purport to co-ordinate labour issues at provincial level; they are composed of various trade unions affiliated to ZCTU.
Funding then was to come from USAID.
Because of the current onslaught on the country’s economy, these labour forums will want to use it as an excuse to call for demonstrations or stay aways and then start uprisings around the country.
All this is meant to boost the popularity of opposition CCC leader Chamisa.
The aim is to make it look like Zimbabwe has become ungovernable.
Just last week, ARTUZ, under the leadership of the notorious Masaraure, declared they would shut down all schools in demand of a 100 percent US dollar-salary increase and would ensure that schools remain closed until their demands are met.
Schools were to be shut down from Friday, June 16 2023 until further notice.
No-one heeded the call.
People refused to be used as pawns in a regime change push.
So desperate is their appetite for attention and their strong desire to please their sponsors, that ARTUZ went-on to introduce a web page called The True Patriots where they denigrate their government.
No doubt it is a dismal attempt ‘diss’ The Patriot for always exposing their shenanigans.
The gullible USAID should know better than to channel funds into a lost cause.
It has also emerged that the same USAID, UK, France, Australia, Sweden, Japan, the US Embassy in Harare, the US-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the EU have offered US$10 million for the training of 12 500 election agents for each of the political parties participating in the forthcoming general elections, according to a statement by the ZANU PF Finance Department.
Not only is such an offer insulting but it would be a clear violation of Section 6 of the Political Parties(Finance Act) Chapter 2:11 that disallows political parties, members or candidates from accepting any foreign donation whether directly from a donor or through a third party.
With that in mind, victory ZANU PF has already begun. The candidate for ZANU PF, Murehwa district ward 9, has already been duly declared as the August 23 2023 councillor.
August 23 is around the corner and pundits contend it is going to be CCC’s waterloo.
It is certainly a goodnight to Chamisa and cronies.
