Staff Reporter
The leader of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), Nelson Chamisa has been castigated by members of his political party for receiving and converting for personal use, campaign funds from the Netherland Embassy, the Fredrick Ebert-Stiftung (FES) and from Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE), the Harare Post has learnt.
Speaking to this publication, a source within the CCC revealed that that party’s aspiring House of Assembly members in the 23 August 2023 Harmonised General Elections were disgruntled because Chamisa had misappropriated funds meant for their election campaigns.
“It is quite disturbing, as a party we are aware that Chamisa received money on behalf of the party from the Fredrick Ebert-Stiftung but that money failed to assist the candidates to register on time with the Nomination Court. The candidates are disappointed that Chamisa is again telling them to self-fund their campaigns because the party is hamstrung on cash yet it is an open secret that he received money to assist in that respect which he chose to divert for his personal use.
“WALPE financed the Gweru campaign launch rally through payment of the stage at a whooping US$800. WALPE also bought the PA system that was used on the day,” said the source
The source further revealed that the Fredrick Ebert-Stiftung had to personally pay for the hiring of the venue in Harare, which is going to be used for the training of CCC’s polling agents, to avoid further misappropriation of funds.
“To avoid further misappropriation of donated funds, the Fredrick Ebert-Stiftung had to directly pay for the venue which will be used tomorrow for the induction of our polling agents at the Golden-Conifer in Harare. The training programme is important that is why the Fredrick Ebert-Stiftung could not take any chances with its funding”.
Moreover, this is not the first time that Chamisa has been accused of misappropriating party funds, as he was once quizzed over the GoFundMe funds sourced to buy him an armored vehicle. As it turns out, Chamisa failed to produce the armored vehicle, as well as evidence that the money was still available, leading to that party’s diaspora members cancelling any future GoFundMe initiatives.
