Tshabangu’s journey into politics
THE self-proclaimed Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) interim secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu hails from ‘a well to do family’ in Inyathi, Bubi, Matabeleland North — contrary to claims he is a Bulawayo based soft drinks vendor.
This is according to villagers who saw him grow up in the area.
Tshabangu has wreaked havoc in the CCC after multiple recalls that have ripped the party.
He has recalled over 20 legislators and more than 60 councillors, claiming they had ceased to be members of the party.
Tshabangu, 49, had to be halted from making more recalls by the CCC through a High Court application whose judgement has been indefinitely reserved.
There has been so much speculation on Tshabangu's background.
Some have claimed he sells soft drinks at Tredgold Courts in Bulawayo, while some have claimed he is a Zanu PF proxy seeking to destroy Zimbabwe’s biggest opposition.
He has also been accused of being a nonentity — a person who ‘sold the democratic struggle to the ruling Zanu PF for personal gain’.
Tshabangu originally comes from 6th Avenue, Bubi cooperative at Inyathi, this newspaper was told.
The area falls under chief Mtshane
Khumalo.
Locals who know him said he did his education in Bubi while staying with his uncle.
They said after completing his education, he joined the hotel industry in Victoria Falls, staying with relatives.
Details show that Tshabangu joined politics in 2000 during the formation of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as a youth relating well with others until he and other supporters decided to form the People's Democratic Party (PDP) around 2014, during the split of MDC.
Things did not work well for him and his new party.
So he returned at the formation of MDC Alliance, where he tried to get a leadership position, but it did not work.
“I think this is what frustrated him most, leading to him hatching a plan of recalling elected CCC members of parliament under the guise of championing the cause of Matabeleland and councillors just to cause chaos in the party," said the villager.
Another villager who preferred anonymity said he only knew him as someone from a rich family.
"I have heard about him but he left home a long time ago," he said.
Another villager said: "I saw his car during the election campaign period and after that he disappeared".
Ibhetshulikazulu secretary general Mbuso Fuzwayo said Tshabangu became a trade unionist in the hotel and catering industry in Victoria Falls.
He said in the MDC Alliance Tshabangu was one of the standing committee members, before he became a member of the CCC.
“He fought for the occupation of positions in Matabeleland by people from outside Matabeleland, he was very instrumental during the former Bulawayo deputy mayor Tinashe Kambarami’s ouster. He also became actively involved in the election of Ward 26 Emganwini councilor Mpumelelo Moyo during the primary elections when Moyo replaced his predecessor Norman Hlabano,’’ Fuzwayo said.
He said instead of debating on issues that were raised by Tshabangu, people rushed to blackmail him.
He said he worked in the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) in Matabeleland North as the co-chair, working with some members from Zanu PF.
He said he was one of the cluster members in CCC working, with Joel Gabuza in Binga.
“The problem is that CCC is not sensitive to the people of Matabeleland. Tshabangu was always contesting the issue of occupation of Matabeleland leadership positions by people from outside the region. Every sane person from Matabeleland is complaining about it. Failure by the CCC leadership to realise this resulted in the recalls happening across the country,’’ he said.
Tshabangu's mobile number was not reachable.
However, his spokesperson Khaliphani Phugeni asked for written questions.
"His phone is not reachable so can you send questions so that I forward to him and get back to you," Phugeni said.
Recently, Tshabangu in an interview with Heart & Soul said they had told people long back that Zanu PF was vicious and they cannot remove it.
"You cannot go on top of a mountain, read a scripture,then think that you are going to remove Zanu PF. It behaves like an animal. It has to be treated with every effort so that it can be removed from power. But we are at our weakest now, we cannot talk about removing Zanu PF," he said.
"This is the intervention that without institutionalising, without a constitution, without collective resolve you cannot remove Zanu PF. The constitution that President Chamisa produced is one of the saddest ones. It is a document that came from his pocket, nobody knew about it."
Tshabangu claimed that down the line there was this creature that was formed by criminals around Chamisa that is structureless.
"This is our fight that we had a structure that is now being substituted by this document. We have a constitution but it will be fully adopted after we go to a congress.
Outside the congress it becomes interim because anybody can change it," he said.
"We were meant to go for a congress and elect a leader. There were three resolutions that were passed in council that I was part of to say let’s change our party name from MDC Alliance to CCC. Let's change the colour from red to yellow…we were meant to go for a congress so that we could elect a leader and adopt a constitution, resolutions and vision adopted by the congress but that was never done."
Tshabangu said the constitution that he has was supposed to be submitted to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) by Job Sikhala and Jacob Mafume. But on arrival at ZEC they were called by Chamisa not to submit it without a reason.