Staff reporter 

Author and Government critic, Tsitsi Dangarembwa has sharply condemned the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) for describing party leader, Nelson Chamisa’s wife as the mother of Zimbabwean citizens.

The CCC communication department, which is headed by Fadzai Mahere, who is deputised by Gift Siziba, on Saturday responded to CCC leader, Nelson Chamisa’s birthday message to his wife, Sithokozile Chamisa by tweeting a message which included a reference to Mrs Chamisa as the mother of Zimbabweans.

“A special birthday wish to the mother of the citizens. May you be strengthened as you strive daily and work towards a new great Zimbabwe,” gushed the department.

Within an hour of the post, which was made at 1932hours, Dangarembwa, who was not amused by the department’s reference to Chamisa’s wife as her mother since she is a citizen of Zimbabwe, shot back. She argued that Mahere and her department had no right to regard Mrs Chamisa as the mother of all Zimbabwean citizens.

“We have to resist this, (we must) not get carried away and (we should) keep our feet on the ground. The respectable Mrs Chamisa, who I don’t even know, is the wife of Zimbabwe’s…opposition leader. She is not the mother of Zimbabwean citizens. You have no right to claim (that) she is my mother,” fumed Dangarembwa.   

Other Zimbabweans such as a netizen who uses the name Bingo Mukaya agreed with Dangarembwa.

“She is Nelson’s wife, one of the opposition leaders in Zimbabwe. She is the mother to Nelson’s children! Finished,” he tweeted.

One Mbonisi Ncomanzi agreed with Dangarembwa and argued that if opposition members refused to recognise people such as First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa as a mother they should not regard Chamisa’s wife as their mother. He called out Mahere and the opposition outfit for hypocrisy.

“I respect your view and agree with it completely. We rebuke it when ZANU PF (members) does it, so must we when our party copies such,” he tweeted.

Other CCC members, smarting from Government critic, Hopewell Chin’ono’s regular criticism of the opposition party and its leadership, which its members think are somewhat self-righteous, a pissed off James Chikonamombe accused Dangarembwa of thinking too highly of herself.

“Zimbabweans in high positions rarely humble themselves. Everyone takes the ‘main actor’ syndrome to stratospheric levels,” he posted.

This is not the first time that Mahere has clashed with a CCC sympathiser or supporter. Many CCC supporters do like her because of the way she routinely embarrasses the outfit through using her position to communicate her personal opinions as the party’s official position. She was convicted on 5 April of charges of publishing falsehoods arising from her January 2021 tweet in which she lied that a police officer had beaten to death a child strapped on its mother’s back with a baton stick in Harare.

The conviction worsened the already-strained relations between her and most CCC members who felt that she had tarnished the party’s name.