By Elizabeth Sitotombe

THE long-anticipated launch of Nelson Chamisa’s proposed new party seems destined for a still-birth owing to his controversial decisions. But then, again, Chamisa is only doing what Chamisa does best. For months now, the former opposition CCC leader has been talking himself hoarse about the formation of a ‘brand new’ party. But it all been nothing but hot air. His diehard supporters at home and abroad have been waiting with bated breath for the announcement that was proclaimed to come ‘any day now’. That day is yet to come.

According to inside sources, there is too much tension within his inner circle for anything to happen, just yet. But what is clear as daylight is that this nameless party will be launched minus individuals deemed as ‘sellouts’ — or is it another case of Chamisa’s ‘strategic ambiguity’! Chamisa, himself, is said to have ordered the creation of structures before even the party is launched, but he made it clear the current CCC sitting MPs were not going to get any positions within this new outfit. A list of the names of all those who will be barred from holding positions in the yet-tobe named party has since been compiled. Among them are Johnson Matambo, Shakespear Hamauswa, Darlington Chigumbu, Adonia Shoko and Knowledge Bete.

However, the former CCC boss has gone a step further by sidelining loyalists Gift Ostallos Siziba, Promise Mkwananzi and Amos Chibaya, among others. According to the same sources, Chamisa believes Ostallos harbours ‘presidential ambitions’ and may be secretly gunning for his position. Thus, he does not want him anywhere near him, now or in the future. According to our impeccable sources, Chamisa does not trust Mkwananzi either, suspecting he is a ‘double agent’. In 2023, Chamisa, for no fathomable reason, replaced Fadzayi Mahere with Mkwananzi as the party’s chief spokesperson in the runup to the 2023 harmonised elections. He is said to have later expressed regret for choosing a loose canon like Mkwananzi. His excuse was that he had only wanted a rabble-rouser, someone capable of inciting violence, something even the veteran Mkwananzi failed to do. Chibaya is, on the other hand, considered to be too vocal for Chamisa’s liking. But for those who have been following Chamisa’s shenanigans closely since he usurped power from Thokozani Khupe in the opposition MDC-T in the wake of Morgan Tsvangira’s death it would come as no surprise. Now known as the ‘silent traitor’, Chamisa has time and again proved his critics right. “Nero’, as he is affectionately known by his followers, appears to lack strategy and insight.

To make maters worse, his leadership skills have been called into question time and time again. Now Chamisa has chosen to reward Jameson Timba for his stint in prison by appointing him as the Chief Bureau Administrator whatever that means. A former Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (during the Government of National Unity) and former Deputy Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Timba was Chamisa’s chief election agent in the 2018 harmonised elections and was recalled from his position of Senator by interim CCC secretary- general Sengezo Tshabangu last year. Timba was reportedly eyeing the position of vice-president in the new party and nearly came to blows with Ostallos and Chibaya over the said position. Fadzayi Mahere was said to be among those former CCC members reportedly eyeing the same position.

Mahere still f inds herself in the communications department despite the embarrassing manner in which Chamisa demoted her ahead of the 2023 elections. According to the same sources, Chamisa now holds little faith in Mahere and believes she lacks the mental and physical stamina to survive the rough amnd tumble of Zimbabwe’s politics.

There have been whispers that, in happier times, Mahere was the inspiration behind the launch of the CCC, not to mention the party’s yellow livery which was borrowed from her Yellow Manifesto. Now the inspiration and brains behind the party is said to be lawyer Thabani Mpofu. According to the source, Chamisa is so besotted with his trusted lawyer’s ideas he has dumped the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) to join Mpofu’s Seventh Day Adventist Church. Some people claim that Chamisa’s new religious affiliation has made him even more paranoid than before. The power-hungry Chamisa is known or his ruthless response to any threat, real or perceived, to his throne.

A case in point was in 2023, when he barred his then vice-president, Tendai Biti, from contesting for the Harare East parliamentary seat, an action many considered a low blow even from a Machiavellian character like Chamisa. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. He went on to abandon an incarcerated Job Sikhala when word started doing the rounds that the former Zengeza West legislator was being touted as his potential successor. Come 2028, Chamisa will most likely be the face of the opposition minus the old guard.

There will be a slew of new faces, mainly those desperate to follow anything linked with ‘the opposition’. Chamisa’s antics beg the question: “Does Chamisa go out of his way to sabotage his parties?” According to those who been at the receiving end of his wrath, ‘Nero’ deliberately stirs trouble in from within so he can use this as an excuse to form another party where no-one questions his authority.

“Chamisa, as an advocate, deliberately created a party with no structures knowing fully well a person like [Sengezo] Tshabangu would swoop in and do as he pleased with the party as he wouldn’t have any legal ground to challenge anything. When the MDC Alliance lost, he went to court knowing full well they had no V11s and no evidence for the sake of the donors to attest that he made an effort. Thereafter, he ditched the party. “This man is a silent traitor.

When the MDC Alliance was formed in 2018, Chamisa had made an agreement with several partners, including Jacob Ngarivhume, that as small parties they would get at least a few seats that were not to be contested but in a last-minute turnaround Chamisa declared that everyone would compete in the primaries and they would work with those that won,” a disgruntled former Chamisa disciple told The _Patriot_ .To this day, many individuals attest that they had no idea Chamisa would simply walk away from a political outfit he founded; especially one whose initials were often personalised to mean ‘Chamisa Chete Chete’.

Opposition politics sympathiser Hopewell Chin’ono believes lack of an alternative leader has left those opposed to ZANU PF clinging to Chamisa. “I do not think Zimbabweans are so stupid as to pursue a failed project over something better when it is available. We would be doing so for 2033, not 2028. That one is already lost to ZANU PF because of lack of an alternative that can completely take on ZANU PF.

We have reality and we also have fiction in our politics, choose which one you want,” said Chin’ono Meanwhile, it was a historic day for all, as legislators from across the political divide gathered at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Precabe Farm in the Midlands Province on January 12 for field tour.

It is there that all parties, including the opposition, took a unified stance and agreed that President Mnangagwa should stay on as the country’s leader beyond 2028. In a show of unity, both opposition MPs and ZANU PF MPs chanted: “2030 ndeya Emmerson” (2030 belongs to Emmerson). While it is a known that President Mnangagwa is a unifier, he has also demonstrated leadership qualities that perhaps Chamisa should emulate. For some it is hard to accept, but Chamisa is a spent force, whose toxic politics has cast a long shadow on his future political career.