Staff Reporter

Deep seated factional fights and fierce jostling for positions has affected Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Masvingo province with reports suggesting that senior members, Wilstaff Sitemere and Martin Murere were in a tug-of-war for the control of Masvingo Urban Constituency.

A source who spoke to this publication said that both Sitemere and Murere were eyeing Masvingo urban constituency in the forthcoming elections and are de-campaigning each other to the electorate.

“There are serious divisions in Masvingo being caused by Sitemere and Murere. The duo are eyeing Masvingo urban constituency in the coming elections. Sitemere is being backed by Tendai Biti while Murere is Nelson Chamisa’s blue eyed boy. There are fears among members that abrasive tussles like this might paralyse the party ahead of the upcoming 2023 elections,” said the source.

The source added that following the fight between Sitemere and Murere, Chamisa last week tasked CCC national advisor, Dzikamai Mavhaire to deal with rampant factionalism in Masvingo and to bring peace between Sitemere and Murere.

“Dzikamai Mavhaire held a meeting last week at his Hill View farm to address rampant factionalism in Masvingo. During the meeting, Mavhaire castigated Sitemere and Murere and threatened that both of them will not be endorsed to contest in the Masvingo urban constituency on behalf of the party due to their misplaced priorities and fomenting chaos. He further said that CCC security was already conducting vetting on all potential candidates and those with questionable loyalty to Chamisa would be disqualified,” said the source.

Meanwhile, a political analyst Terrence Chipwanya urged Chamisa to personally deal with factionalism in his part instead of delegating the likes of Mavhaire to do the job.

Efforts to get a comment from CCC interim national spokesperson, Fadzayi Mahere were futile as she was not answering calls.