THE main opposition party Coalition for Citizens’ Change (CCC) party is teetering on the brink of another split just a few hours before the Nomination Court sits ahead of the 23 August harmonised elections.
Fissures, for long papered by the absence of structures and a despotic hold on the levers of power in the opposition, have been widened by the engineered loss of the opposition party vice president Mr Tendai Biti in the shambolic and farcical candidate selection process.
As it appears, the writing was always on the wall for Mr Biti despite his spirited efforts to thwart the scheming of his president and possible rival Mr Nelson Chamisa.
In a clear sign of throwing Mr Biti under the bus, announcing names of legislators that will represent the party, Mr Chamisa said the process was done smoothly.
“We have got a report from our candidate selection panel, it is the independent panel that was instructed to carry out a process on our behalf. They have done a fantastic job. We are so grateful, we are so thankful for the work that they did.
“It is all systems go, we now have a full complement of our candidates across the whole country. What awaits the next process is for us to file the nomination of those candidates. We are so thankful to CIPS, thank you members of CIPS, our independent electoral body that was dealing with the selection,” he said.
As correctly reported by The Herald, Mr Chamisa was desperate to see the back of his bitter rival and made sure, through deceit and manipulation, that the challenger for Mr Biti’s Harare East constituency, Mr Allan Markham, comes out tops.
Mr Chamisa loyalists wanted Mr Biti out and that was the outcome of the party’s clandestine candidate selection programme that was completed at the weekend.
Mr Takudzwa Ngadziore, perceived as Mr Chamisa’s confidante, openly attacked Mr Biti for his 2 minutes 50 seconds video clip circulating on social media, where he took a dig at Mr Markham.
Mr Ngadziore was however, quick to delete his tweet where he said, “Agreed! Hate speech, racism and vitriolic incitement to violence should never have space amongst democrats especially those who have written about ‘how democracy works before’.”
In a 2 minutes 50 seconds video clip, Mr Biti was furious, refusing to be relegated to the Senate.
“When I last came here, I was not mentioning names but today I am doing so. We don’t want snakes in Harare East, no to Tsukukuviri. Some are now moving around with ‘vasina mabvi’. We don’t want a snake, no to black mamba.
“Constituency should know that we don’t want a snake, we are going to crash its head. Chamisa for presidency, Biti for MP and this guy you know him he is called Honzero, but a snake should be crushed from the head this is our word everywhere,” he said.
Mr Biti also distanced himself from taking the position of Senator.
“There are some people thinking that Chamisa will be short of candidates moving around telling lies. If you want to campaign do so without mentioning someone’s name. I hear some saying Biti wants to be a senator. I don’t want to be one.
“We need to put effective people who represent. Some of you use the internet witnessing works we are doing, some you see it on Facebook. A person who we are selecting for the MP post is Tendai Biti. We have some campaigning to be councillors,” he said.
