Political analysts have urged the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) to go for an elective congress before the 2023 elections in order to fill up vacancies and avoid political suicide.
This comes after CCC Deputy Spokesperson Gift Siziba last week said his party had no intentions of going for a congress citing that ZanuPF and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) were planning to infiltrate the party and cause disorder.
“Let me clear this once and for all, there are people who are motivated by Zanu PF, to imagine and think that we are going for a congress. Look we are a new political organisation, we do not hold congresses and we have no intention to hold a congress.
“In CCC, the congress does not exist …it is in the headquarters of Zanu PF and CIO, who in their imagination think we are going to have a congress and they can deploy their people,” Siziba said last week.
However, critics have thrashed Siziba’s sentiments alleging that the longer the party takes to go for a congress, the more it becomes inevitable to run it down and have fertile ground for divisions.
Former government Minister and CCC sympathizer, Professor Jonathan Moyo implored the opposition party to hold an elective congress as this is in accordance with the country’s laws.
“The CCC is saying no vacancies and no congress of any kind. CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) wants to infiltrate us; maybe a people’s convention, get the nomenclature right. But a citizen’s convention is better nomenclature. Wait, CIO can only infiltrate a congress; not a convention since it’s American, right,” Moyo tweeted
Political analyst, Gibson Nyikadzino told 263Chat that the CCC party is departing from its rhetoric of being a democratic party as its stance speaks against what it purports to stand for.
“It is not easy to be democratic and the many inconsistent positions about the inaugural launch of the CCC means democracy only exists in the mind. The CCC is trying to deflect and suppress issues of internal democracy by saying the term ‘congress’ applies to ZanuPF,” Nyikadzino said.
He added that the party maybe be committing political suicide by keeping everyone on an interim basis as this will create fissures within the already fragmented party.
“The implication of keeping everyone on an interim basis is that this will increase chances of uncertainty and it will definitely rock the ship. Chamisa also knows he has impatient people like (Tendai) Biti, (Welshman) Ncube who are old and do not fit in his generational consensus view and he is mapping ways to retire them. To him, they have outlived their usefulness. So anticipate a potential fracture in that party,” Nyikadzino added.
Constitutional lawyer and political analyst, Alex Magaisa weighed in saying the CCC is having a departure from the old system of holding congresses and the founding fathers of the party might deem it unnecessary.
“What if the CCC is reimagining how it is constituted, far away from this discourse? How this special gathering is constituted and its purpose is a matter for the founding members. Every organisation has founding members. After all, a party is a voluntary organisation with the liberty to make its own rules that best advance its interests and goals,” Magaisa said.
He further noted that the CCC can choose to have an interim constitution which establishes rules and organs pending the adoption of the final constitution by the body of people given that role by the interim constitution.
“They might call it a “Congress” but they might decide to change this discourse,” Magaisa said.
