Political Reporter
Citizens Coalition for Change's (CCC) interim vice president, Welshman Ncube, and interim chairperson, Thabitha Khumalo, are being accused by that party’s supporters in Bulawayo Province for not safeguarding the interests of Ndebele-speaking people within that party.
A source who spoke to this publication said that Ncube and Khumalo were not doing anything to resist Shona's hegemony within the CCC party.
"The CCC members in Bulawayo Province are accusing Ncube and Khumalo of doing nothing to protect the interests of Ndebele-speaking people within that party. Members are saying that Ncube and Khumalo were only concerned about their political survival and are ignoring the mistreatment of the Ndebele people within the CCC," said the source.
The source added that the same members were fuming that some Shona-speaking people were being imposed as candidates in Bulawayo at the expense of deserving Ndebele-speaking members.
"The vice president (Ncube) and the chairperson (Khumalo) are seeing Shona people being imposed in Bulawayo and are turning a blind eye to that. If they can’t protect the interests of the Ndebele people, then they should relinquish their positions. We are tired of being treated as second-class citizens in CCC. We deserve fair and equal treatment, not what we are seeing where a Shona-speaking person is imposed as a candidate in Bulawayo," fumed the source.
The same source said that it was disheartening that one Memory Makasi, a Shona-speaking CCC member, was imposed as CCC candidate in Nketa constituency by her allegedly lover, Amos Chibaya, the national organising secretary.
"Ncube and Khumalo are quiet when Makasi is being imposed as a candidate in the Nketa constituency. Does this mean that there are no deserving Ndebele people who could represent the party in Nketa?" queried the source.
According to the source, Ncube and Khumalo also did nothing to stop the return of Thokozani Khupe to the CCC, and she was also allegedly imposed by Chibaya to represent the CCC in Cowdray Park constituency against the people's wishes.
Efforts to get a comment from Ncube and Khumalo were futile, as their mobile phones were not reachable.
