Khupe attends Chamisa meeting

FORMER MDC-T deputy president Thokozani Khupe yesterday effectively joined the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) after she attended a meeting addressed by Nelson Chamisa in Bulawayo.

Khupe was clad in CCC’s yellow party regalia as she attended the provincial meeting held at Mc Donalds Hall in Makokoba suburb as an ordinary party member.

There was commotion before the meeting as CCC youths attempted to block her from attending, forcing Chamisa to stepin, saying the newly-launched party was not discriminatory.

“Today, I attended my first meeting as a CCC member addressed by President Chamisa in Bulawayo, in Mc Donald Hall,” Khupe posted on Twitter yesterday evening.

Chamisa said he felt encouraged by the Bulawayo meeting.

“Bulawayo citizens’ grassroots engagement meeting inspiring and energising – 2022 citizens’ action agenda, economy and electoral reforms,” he said on Twitter.

“Great conversations on citizens at centre of strategy, structure, culture and the transitional agenda. A new great Zimbabwe loading.”

Khupe announced her support for Chamisa just before the March 26 byelections after going separate ways with Douglas Mwonzora following a fight over the control of the MDC-T.

But other CCC leaders including interim chairperson Tabitha Khumalo had publicly vowed to block Khupe from joining the opposition party.

A number of ex-MDC-T members have also crossed the floor to the CCC after suffering humiliating defeats in the by-elections.Chamisa’s CCC bagged 19 of the 28 contested parliamentary seats in the byelections while Mwonzora got zero.

Khupe, who was the MDC-T leader before she was ousted by Mwonzora, was instrumental in dismantling the MDC Alliance, after the 2018 elections.

The two were accused of working with President Emmerson Mnangagwa to create a one party state by launching an onslaught against the country’s then largest opposition movement.

Mwonzora and Khupe continue to deny the allegations.