Chamisa rebukes Zanu PF for ‘baffling’ plot to extend Mnangagwa incumbency amidst service delivery collapse
FORMER Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) leader, Nelson Chamisa has taken aim at President Emmerson Mnangagwa for plotting to use a Zanu PF faction to push his stay in office beyond 2028.
Mnangagwa, first elected in 2018 following a coup the previous year, completes his constitutionally permissible second term in 2028 but some Zanu PF elements are urging him to hang on, ostensibly “to complete unfinished developmental projects.”
Speaking in his cryptic fashion during the funeral of Glenview South Member of Parliament (MP) Grandmore Hakata in Harare Saturday, Chamisa said, in apparent reference to Mnangagwa, bad governance resulting in collapsing infrastructure and poor service delivery is endemic in society, but he shockingly wanted a term extension.
“Chinonzi mumiriri kugara nevanhu, kutaura nevanhu, kufamba nevanhu, kubuda muvanhu, uchidzokera muvanhu, uchitaura zvevanhu, usingakanganwi vanhu, usingarasi vanhu.
”Ndaona migwagwa, ndokubva ndaona masewage ndokubva nadaona zvitoro, zvose zvaparara. Ndokubva ndabvunza kuti nhaiwe? Zvaunotaura, nekuparadza kwawaita unoti woda kuenda kuseri kwegomo nekuparadza kwawaita. Unoda kuendepi?”
Chamisa urged opposition activists to defend virtues Hakata stood for to improve citizens’ welfare.
The late MP, a Chamisa loyalist, rose to prominence following his widely reported arrest a few days before the 2023 general elections for allegedly holding a car rally. He won the elections while in prison anyway, only to be released after the polls.
Chamisa, a lawyer-cum-politician, who quit as CCC president citing infiltration by Zanu PF, has hinted at a comeback, urging his supporters to remain steadfast in the wake of machinations to decimate alternative voices.
The charismatic 47-year-old opposition leader was cheered by mourners as he announced Mnangagwa’s exit was coming soon, stating “he who says l am not going, is already gone.”
Addressing the same gathering, firebrand opposition activist and former legislator, Gift Ostallos Siziba said those opposed to Zanu PF are the majority hence must resist the term extension, which is expected to come into effect through constitutional amendments and referendums.
“We are the majority, and we won’t accept the 2030 agenda…you cannot extend a stolen mandate.
“Mnangagwa has no mandate to remain in office beyond 2028. The 2023 (disputed election result) has to be resolved before we talk about 2028…the person elected by the people was Advocate Nelson Chamisa,” said Siziba.
He said Zanu PF was using United States dollars to buy the allegiance of some ‘sellout’ CCC members, a carrot that Hakata resisted and stayed loyal to the struggle for a democratic country.
Despite Mnangagwa spurning overtures to extend his term courtesy of a party resolution now dubbed ‘Resolution#1’ at last year’s Zanu PF National People’s Conference in Bulawayo arguing he is a ‘constitutionalist’, he is rumoured to be sponsoring factionalists pushing the 2030 agenda.
Credit : NewZimbabwe.com
