Harare | Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) self-declared Change Champion in Chief Nelson Chamisa has dismissed Tendai Biti’s call for collective leadership in the party, saying he would rather follow his heart.
Biti was one of the MDC Alliance deputy presidents before the party morphed into CCC and abandoned leadership structures.
The former Minister of Finance is reportedly among several senior former MDC members who formed CCC who have been sidelined by Chamisa who allegedly prefers working with those he considers loyal to him.
On Saturday, 11 November, Biti criticised CCC’s “strategic ambiguity” championed by Chamisa, saying he believes in collective leadership among other values and will “never” compromise on his beliefs. He said:
I have my challenges and reservations about our identity and our structural, strategic, and procedural polity.
I am a democrat who believes in constitutionalism, the rule of law, transparency, openness and collective leadership. I can never compromise on these core values.
However, responding to one of his followers on the X social media site who had asked for “Transparency and collective leadership”, Chamisa said:
Is there anything called collective leadership for unlike hearts and minds?? Governance issues are matters of the heart.
Political commentators say Chamisa risks losing control of CCC after a party activist, Sengezo Tshabangu, claimed to be the party’s interim secretary general and successfully recalled scores of elected representatives.
Chamisa has also been accused of exhibiting dictatorial tendencies by allegedly running CCC without consulting other party members and making decisions unilaterally.
Commenting on Chamisa’s post on X, journalist Hopewell Chin’ono said the CCC leader has made it clear that those who do not agree with him should move on. He said:
I think those who are wanting collective leadership should leave CCC and allow Nelson Chamisa to run his project the way he wants to.
He has made it explicitly clear here that there is no place for them in CCC.
Those wanting a democratically run party should just leave! He doesn’t want to work with people he differs with and he has said it. Accept and move on!
Last month, opposition activist, Freeman Chari who is also a software engineer based in the United States of America, suggested that “strategic ambiguity” has been CCC’s weakness.
For feedback and comments, please contact ZiMetro News on WhatsApp: +27 82 836 5828.
