By Farai D Hove | CCC President Nelson Chamisa has been accused of causing poverty on the masses.
His sworn nemesis Douglas Mwonzora made the allegations in an address to his members as he declared that he is putting an end to Chamisa during the upcoming by-elections.
He also claimed that Chamisa is currently operating under a disguised identity, signalling that he will soon bring the latter down through claiming that he has no new party at all, he is under him (Mwonzora’s) leadership.
Mwonzora’s allegations matched his previous boast that any new name Chamisa operates under is his (Mwonzora’s).
He said “we shall defeat them even in their current guise and camouflage.”
He accused Chamisa of causing poverty, saying, “the project is being superintended by the very people who yesterday subjected Zimbabwe to totalitarianism and hate and consigned the majority of our people to untold poverty and misery.
“They can never fool Zimbabweans that they are the new liberators.”
Below was his full statement:
A few days ago after successfully completing our candidate selection process we fielded our parliamentary and local government candidates for the forthcoming by-elections. Due to constraints of time, our candidate selection was hurried and may not have been perfect in some areas.
Our detractors left no stone unturned in their quest to interfere with our candidate selection process. Even after the candidate selection process they did not tire.
They tried all they could to make sure that our chosen candidates were discouraged from filing their papers and appearing before the Nomination Court. This they did using a variety of methods, including offering financial and other incentives for our candidates to drop.
We were heartened to see that through their sheer determination to do what is right, the majority of our candidates resisted these evil attempts. As a result we fielded 90 percent of the candidates for the National Assembly elections and 77% percent for the local government elections. These candidates are men and women of the highest calibre and integrity. They have serious self-drive, motivation and focus. They are no doubt going to give a good account of themselves in these election. We are happy that we are the party that has fielded most women candidates.
Our candidates have an easier job in these by-elections because they are going to square up mostly against non achievers who have short-changed our people for years. Some of these are self-serving individuals who abandoned the electorate as soon as they were elected in 2018. They are now reappearing because there is an election again.
Currently the party is being subjected to a noisy and dirty campaign. A lot of false propaganda is being churned everyday against us by the enemies of democracy. Social media bullying is the order of the day. An underdog tag has been foisted upon us with threats of an imaginary total electoral annihilation come March, 26.
These threats are simply meant to discourage you by people who in actual fact are afraid of you. Fortunately our germane and intrinsic character and our rich history of struggle in the face of adversity does not and will not allow us to succumb to base intimidation and cheap propaganda. These vile attacks and propaganda only work to motivate us and bring the best out of each one of us. A whole propaganda from the previous regime is being unleashed upon us.
The project is being superintended by the very people who yesterday subjected Zimbabwe to totalitarianism and hate and consigned the majority of our people to untold poverty and misery. They can never fool Zimbabweans that they are the new liberators. As before we shall defeat them even in their current guise and camouflage. These people are subjecting our leaders to the very same treatment that they subjected Tsvangirai to. Fortunately for these people just like Tsvangirai and our other forebears we shall persevere, strive and overcome.
There are efforts under way to promote disunity, strife and dis-cohesion among our ranks. The strategy is to portray us as a party in turmoil and therefore not worthy of the people’s trust. They are using many methods including law tare. But as usual we shall totally defeat them.
I would like to assure all our members that logistically and materially your leadership is well prepared for these by-elections. Our candidates, their campaign teams and election agents will receive maximum support from the party. In our efforts to encourage participation of more women in elections, we shall devote more resources to those constituencies and wards where we have female candidates.
Lastly, what is being done by our opponents is nothing new to us. We are used to vile propaganda, falsehoods, intimidation and social media bullying.
We are used to being treated as an underdog even by people we have defeated before. We are equally accustomed to fight well even under conditions of adversity.
I would also want to take this opportunity to encourage first time voters to take advantage of the Mobile Voter Registration Blitz starting today. Our Elections department is on standby to assist those that may experience problems. We are encouraged at the number of Zimbabweans who are turning up for our meetings. They have completely fallen in love with our new way of doing politics.