A defining moment for Chamisa

NELSON Chamisa has dumped the “bastardised” Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), the party he helped to form two years ago. In an announcement on Thursday, Chamisa said he was walking away from the party as it has been “contaminated, bastardised and hijacked by Zanu PF through the abuse of State institutions”. CCC, he said, had become an extension of Zanu PF and that it has been “criminally handed over” to the governing party. Zanu PF has in the past said it had no hand in the CCC internal chaos.

Chamisa said politics had been “defiled by a scheme of personal aggrandisement upon a runaway pursuit of politics of positions, titles, benefits, trinkets and trappings of office”.

Chamisa’s announcement did not come as a surprise.

The writing was on the wall after Sengezo Tshabangu installed himself as the party’s interim secretary-general and began recalling lawmakers and councillors.

The former legislators and councillors were barred from contesting under the CCC party banner in by-elections after Tshabangu obtained a court order to stop them from using the name of the opposition party.

However, the self-imposed interim secretary general could not field candidates and in the process gave Zanu PF victory on a silver platter.

The CCC lawmakers and councillors have a choice to either follow the leader and lose the benefits or stay and enjoy the trappings of power but with the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.

There have been outpourings of support to Chamisa’s stance with several lawmakers throwing their weight behind the politician.

However, this remains populism in the absence of a withdrawal from Parliament.

If the lawmakers and councillors support Chamisa, they will resign en masse which would trigger a series of by-elections.

The remaining CCC officials are caught between a rock and hard place after funding their campaigns and were expecting to recoup through allowances.

They have every right to remain in Parliament or local authorities. They carry the mandate of the electorate.

For Chamisa, this should not be about dumping a political party. He needs to introspect and use the CCC’s experience in moulding a new political party.

The buck stops with him. Political analyst Eldred Masunungure told NewsDay on Thursday that Chamisa opened the CCC to all forms of attacks by refusing to formalise structures.

“The cardinal lesson is that his next political project must respect the basic rules of the game of politics which is that power flows from the barrel of an organisation,” Masunungure said.

We concur. A government-in-waiting should strive to be a better alternative. The chaos that engulfed CCC was to a greater extent triggered by the absence of structures in which the leader was everywhere.

This should offer lessons to avoid the same problem recurring as political vultures will keep circling.

Nevertheless, Chamisa remains a formidable force in the court of public opinion. He has found the biggest ally in the form of a deteriorating economy. The local currency is taking a battering against the dollar, triggering a steep rise in prices.