West coming to terms with Chamisa’s poor leadership
THE West, which supports the CCC, has been put into a corner by the party leader’s poor leadership pedigree, forcing them to acknowledge its shortcomings.
This came after Nelson Chamisa’s poor handling of the ongoing recalls by that party’s interim secretary-general, Sengezo Tshabangu, and the resultant by-elections.
In the past, many Western governments, media houses and organisations used to marshal all their forces against Zanu PF and Government over different issues such as their claims of human rights abuse, but the by-elections held last Saturday brought to the fore the West’s increasing frustration with Chamisa.
While maintaining their negative headlines as before, some Western media houses are slowly becoming honest with themselves about the unlikely prospect of a Chamisa presidency in Zimbabwe due to his poor leadership of the CCC.
On December 10, the BBC carried a story headlined “Zimbabwe by-elections: Polls open in controversial vote” in which it admitted that “CCC is plagued by factional conflicts and the current crisis appears to a large extent to be self-inflicted.”
This was in apparent reference to Chamisa’s refusal to commission the crafting of a constitution for the party and calling for an elective congress to choose a national leadership for the CCC, a loophole which Tshabangu is exploiting to wreak havoc in the party.
Chamisa cited non-existent potential threat of infiltration by Zanu PF.
Things were worsened by the opposition leader’s abuse of the party’s citizens consensus for candidate selection to impose his preferred candidates for last August’s general election at the expense of those who were popular with grassroots supporters.
The publication claimed that some people within the CCC were assisting President Mnangagwa to consolidate power using the opposition.
It, however, advanced no evidence to support its claim.
“What is surprising is some within the opposition appear to be helping (to) concentrate power in the President’s hands,” the publication wrote.
This was in apparent reference to Tshabangu who most CCC members are accusing of recalling the party’s members allegedly to aid Zanu PF’s bid to achieve a two thirds majority in Parliament.
Tshabangu has, however, denied the accusations and named Chamisa’s former interim deputies Tendai Biti and Professor Welshman Ncube as some of the senior CCC members that he is working with.
Even some Western diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe, some of whom supported the opposition, have also become despondent about the prospect of Chamisa unseating Zanu PF.
Recently, the Bulawayo-based news website, Bulawayo.com published an article headlined “Western Diplomats blast Chamisa . . . call him incompetent or Zanu PF front” in which the publication reported that Government critic, Hopewell Chin’ono posted on his X platform that some diplomats were frustrated by Chamisa’s poor leadership style.
The publication reported that Chin’ono said: “One of the senior team members of a Western election observer mission team said this to me; “I have covered more than 60 elections across the world, I have never seen a presidential candidate who has done everything possible in the book to lose an election like Nelson Chamisa has done.”
The diplomat was further reported as having expressed surprise over Chamisa’s leadership and brand of politics.
“We went to see Nelson (Chamisa) for a meeting, and yet he was alone, it has been the same with other observer missions,” the observer reportedly said.
Even the United Kingdom (UK) government’s apparent Chamisa handler and a critic of Zimbabwean Government, Dr Stephen Chan, has also expressed his disquiet over Chamisa’s poor leadership of the CCC and the resultant internal crisis.
He highlighted that there was no evidence of a Zanu PF hand in the CCC’s ongoing implosion.
“The party (CCC) is eating itself. There is still no clear line of evidence that Zanu PF is orchestrating this, but it must be rubbing its hands with glee,” Dr Chan posted on his X microblogging site handle last week.
Contrary to its propaganda, the West has come to the painful realisation that despite investing limitlessly in Zimbabwe’s opposition for decades, there is no prospect of Chamisa and the CCC unseating Zanu PF.
It is now clear to the West that most of the ongoing woes in the opposition outfit were authored by Chamisa.