Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) youths attempted to block former MDC-T deputy president Thokozani Khupe from attending a CCC Bulawayo provincial assembly meeting on Saturday.
The CCC youths barred Khupe from attending the meeting which was addressed by the opposition party’s leader, Nelson Chamisa, at McDonald Hall in Bulawayo, accusing her of being a sellout. One of the youths said:
Khupe, you are not welcome here. All along you were dining and wining with (President Emmerson) Mnangagwa, busy plotting the destruction our party.
You even recalled from parliament some of our leaders whom you want to meet today. Are you not ashamed of what you did?
Chamisa rebuked the youths for their intolerance, saying he did not invite Khupe to the meeting but as a citizen, she had a right to attend the meeting. Said Chamisa:
I am not a leader of a violent people; I am not a leader of a violent community and I will never accept violence.
This is why I left MDC to form a peaceful organisation with God-fearing supporters.
I do not want this coalition to resemble a Mnangagwa organisation or even that of Mugabe.
I am not happy with those youths who are blocking Khupe. I did not invite her, but she has the right, as a citizen, to be in this meeting.
Khupe later tweeted that she had attended her “first meeting as a CCC member addressed by President Chamisa in Bulawayo Macdonald Hall”.
Last month Khupe endorsed Chamisa and CCC candidates ahead of the 26 March by- elections.
CCC leadership is divided on whether to accept Khupe as a member due to her former close association with President Emmerson Mnangagwa when she was a member of the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD).