Staff Reporter
In a shocking turn of events in the opposition party, Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, Nelson Chamisa is threatening to fire two of his close lieutenants, Gift ‘Ostallos’ Siziba and Charlton Hwende.
A source confided in this publication that Chamisa wanted to chuck out Hwende and Siziba from CCC because the two were showing signs of rebellion by publicly defying the former`s orders. The source revealed that Siziba was threatening Chamisa’s popularity in Bulawayo and Matabeleland Provinces.
“Chamisa has made it clear that he intends to expel Hwende and Ostallos from that party. This is because the duo is secretly disregarding Chamisa’s directive to boycott Parliament,” said the source.
“Ostallos and Hwende are busy persuading the winning legislators to hold on to their seats and to attend the opening of the 10th Parliament as they had earned their appointments and everything that comes with the status. Hwende is said to have reminded the 103 CCC Members of Parliament elect that they didn’t owe anyone allegiance since they were left to self-finance their campaign to get to where they are,” said the source.
Moreover, claims are that Chamisa was facing resistance from his subordinates due to his dictatorial tendencies and selfish behaviour.
According to the source, Hwende blames the CCC loss on Chamisa and the latter is aware of it. He also harbors an opinion that, had it been Tendai Biti or Job Sikhala who was on the stirring wheel, CCC would have won the elections.
“Our leader Hwende said it all went haywire the minute we allowed Chamisa to stop the elective congress. If we had gone through with it and Biti or Sikhala were elected, we would have won this election. Chamisa’s dictatorial tendency of clinging on to power, imposing candidates is what caused our party to lose this election.
“This has nothing to do with ZANU PF rigging, but people were not happy in many constituencies because the candidates that Chamisa imposed on them were unpopular. The reason we lost was due to a protest vote by the people,” said the source.
Furthermore, Chamisa purged a lot of CCC big wigs as that party prepared for the Harmonised General Elections. Biti, Welshman Ncube, Sikhala, Tabitha Khumalo and Thokozani Khupe were all thrown to the wayside in favour of the younger generation that he thought he could control.
