SELF-STYLED Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu is on the verge of seizing total control of Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party almost a year after he precipitated the disintegration of the movement that was once led by Nelson Chamisa, information exclusively obtained by The Standard has shown.
Chamisa quit CCC early this year after Tshabangu declared himself secretary general of the party, which had no structures and started recalling parliamentarians, senators and councillors that were elected during the August 2023 elections.
After the CCC leader quit in frustration, his former lieutenants Welshman Ncube, Tendai Biti and Lynnette Karenyi Kore were appointed acting presidents in February this year after the party said it was reverting to its 2019 structures.
Biti has, however, taken a sabbatical from politics. Now Tshabangu has been given legal advice that says the terms of office of all those elected at the Gweru congress ended in May this year.
That will mean the former Matabeleland North MDC provincial official will be the sole CCC official who is in office legally because he says he was not part of the 2019 processes.
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According to confidential correspondence in possession of The Standard, only Tshabangu will retain his position as the interim secretary general of the party.
In correspondence addressed to Tshabangu by his lawyers Ncube Attorneys, they advised him that the term of office of all CCC office bearers expired in May.
“In the circumstances, any office bearer elected on May 25, 2019 who is still in that post is in that post unlawfully and is exercising power or authority that they do not have in terms of the party’s constitution under which they were elected, and the decisions that they made or the acts that they have done since May 25, 2024 are of no legal force of effect,” reads the legal advice dated August 12.
The correspondence is titled: Expiry of the tenure of CCC office bearers elected in Gweru in May 2019 and non-compliance with the time limit for the holding of congress.
Tshabangu’s lawyers said Ncube was also announced as acting party president illegally.
“It is a matter of the public record that meetings said to have been of the ‘national standing committee’ were held on January 24, 2024, January 28 and on January 29, 2024 in the wake of the sudden resignation of Mr Nelson Chamisa on January 24, 2024, and that subsequently, another meeting was held on February 17, 2024, in which Professor Welshman Ncube was said to have been ‘appointed’ as the acting president,” Tshabangu’s lawyers wrote.
“In our opinion, it is the party’s national council, not the national standing committee which should have made the decisions announced by the national standing committee on February 17, 2024.
“This is because, in terms of the constitution of the party, the national standing committee does not have the power to appoint an acting president.”
Tshabangu’s lawyers said the failure by Ncube and others to organise a congress was a serious violation of the party’s constitution.
They said Tshabangu must retain his position as the secretary general.
“You are the interim secretary general not on the basis of the Gweru congress resolutions, or the results of the elections held on May 25, 2019 at the Gweru congress, but on the basis of the decisions recommended by the national executive council on January 21, 2022, and approved by the national council on January 22, 2022," the lawyers said.
“These decisions were abandoned not only by Chamisa but also by virtually all members of the current national standing committee leadership that was absent between 22 January and 24 January 2024.
“In our considered opinion, only your office and position as CCC interim secretary general remain with a valid legal basis...”
The lawyers advised him to set up a five-member technical team “to review the situation that has arisen and to recommend a reset or way forward or congress for consideration and adoption by the party parliamentary caucus.”
Tshabangu’s lawyer Nqobani Sithole refused to comment on the correspondence citing client-lawyer confidentiality.
Descent Bajila, the CCC deputy spokesperson, said he was not aware of the development and needed time to verify the information.
CCC recently received US$1.6 million from government under the Political Parties Finances Act.
According to Act, parties that manage to get at least 5% of the vote receive funding from the government
The government disbursed ZiG47,883,500 to Zanu PF and ZiG22,116,500 to CCC. The government official rate is 13.9 converting the CCC portion to $1.6 million.
