Political Reporter

Attempts by the leader of Transform Zimbabwe (TZ) Jacob Ngarivhume to gain relevance by calling for a demonstration against serial offender Job Sikhala’s continued stay in prison have failed, as senior members of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) have snubbed the call.

Speaking to this publication, Political Analyst Thinashe Ndou said Ngarivhume’s call for demonstrations only helped to expose the deep fissures within CCC, if not to confirm Sikhala’s fears that there are people within CCC who stand to benefit from his continued stay in prison.

“The divisions are deep in CCC, that is why you find the initiative to stand and demonstrate for Sikhala’s continued stay in prison did not come from within, it had to be initiated by the leader of TZ Ngarivhume, and even so the call was snubbed by the CCC leadership,” said Ndou.

A source from CCC Bulawayo revealed that a senior member of that party identified as Gideon Shoko instructed all CCC members to ignore Ngarivhume’s call.

“Shoko said, Hatiwudzwe zvekuyita naNgarivhume, we have our own party leadership, Ngarivhume has his own party TZ and he should work with them and not us.

“We stand with our leaders’ position to let the courts handle Sikhala’s issue,” said the source.

CCC Bulawayo interim chairperson James Sithole rubbished his fellow party member Shoko for failing to support the cause, and dared to defy the leadership directive on the case by claiming that they have detached themselves from Sikhala’s suffering.

“We are aware that it benefits some senior leaders of our CCC party to leave Sikhala to toil behind bars, their non-confrontational approach is targeted at frustrating Sikhala out of CCC, we will not let that happen, the whole party will have to fall,” said Sithole.

The factional fights in the CCC party continue to rear their ugly head as Nelson Chamisa is being accused of failing to lead the party from the front.  Biti has however been cited as a more aggressive and confrontational leader who is willing to go the extra mile for his fellow party members, this has fuelled the love hate relationship that exists between Chamisa and Biti. 

Meanwhile, Ngarivhume has exposed himself as a failed one man band party with a continued propensity of hijacking other political party projects and initiatives.  This is not the first time that Jacob has tried to mobilise people through social medial for a mass demonstration and failed, he planned the 31 July 2020 protests dubbed the people’s project which failed to take off.