A Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) faction aligned to “recalls kingpin” Sengezo Tshabangu has written to the government requesting the disbursement of funds due to the opposition party under the Political Parties Finance Act.
For a party to qualify for State funding under the Act, it must secure at least 5 per cent of the total vote in a general election.
The CCC faction’s interim treasurer Mbuso Siso on Tuesday, 12 March told <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200024280/tshabangu-faction-lays-claim-to-government-windfall">NewsDay</a> that they held a meeting in Bulawayo last year and resolved that the party should open a bank account.
Siso wrote a letter to the Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs ministry on 06 March, asking the government to speed up the process of funds disbursements. Reads the letter:
<blockquote>
I am writing in terms of section 3 (1) as read with the section 3 (3) of the Political Parties (Finance Act, Chapter 2:11) to request the statutory allocation and disbursement of the funding that is due to the Citizens Coalitions for Change (CCC) political party which participated in the 2023 Harmonised general election in which it garnered sufficient seats to qualify for the funds.
We will soon submit the account details of our CCC bank account as we are requesting your good office to process and disburse the allocation that is due to our party in terms of the Act.
Kindly find attached a copy extract from the minutes of a meeting of the interim committee dated October 7, 2023, signed by the interim secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu and the treasurer general.
</blockquote>
Siso also told NewsDay that Tshabangu, who is the faction’s interim secretary general, remains suspended pending a disciplinary hearing for not attending party meetings.
He also said the party has recalled Nomvula Mguni, Otilia Sibanda and Lungile Ncube, who were sworn in as proportional representation National Assembly members in Bulawayo, saying they were not part of the agreed list.
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Sengezo Tshabangu's CCC Faction Lays Claim To Party Finances Under Political Parties Finance Act

CCC’s self-appointed nine-member interim steering committee led by Sengezo Tshabangu has demanded that former party leader Nelson Chamisa formally communicate that he has quit the party.
Chamisa on Thursday issued a 13-page statement announcing his resignation from CCC saying the party has been “contaminated” and “hijacked” by the ZANU PF-led government.
Speaking to <a href="https://x.com/NewsHawksLive/status/1750635349712277813?s=20">The NewsHawks</a> last night, CCC interim committee’s treasurer Mbuso Siso said Chamisa should officially write to them since they are running the party. Said Siso:
<blockquote>
Unfortunately, he quit this way telling people that he no longer has anything to do with the CCC without officially writing to us as the interim committee running the party.
We only saw his departure on social media and it’s all over the place. All the same, we can’t hold him to ransom to be our leader when he no longer wants to be one.
In the meantime, I will call him – Chamisa – to confirm that he has quit the party. I last spoke to him a month ago when we were dealing with the state of the party and talking about important issues affecting the Matabeleland region.
So I will find out more about his announcement and what we need from him after he has left.
</blockquote>
Siso also demanded that Chamisa avail all the books, accounts and records and an inventory of the party’s assets. He said:
<blockquote>
As acting treasurer-general, I want all the books, accounts and records of expenditures for accountability purposes.
We need to know from records how much he and the party received from donations and how the money was used.
We also need to know if the party has some assets that should remain in its name after his departure.
</blockquote>
According to The NewsHawks, committee running the CCC has Dingilizwe Tshuma, former legislator for Entumbane-Njube constituency in Bulawayo as chair; Albert Mhlanga (former Pumula MP and deputy); Sengezo Tshabangu (secretary-general); Khaliphani Phugeni (information); Sikhululekile Moyo (interim chairperson for women); Nomvula Mguni (ex-proportional representation MP), Mbuso Siso (treasurer) and Benoni Ncube (youth).
This is the Committee which implemented the recalls and is recognised by the State as CCC’s structure.
The activities of the self-imposed committee led Chamisa to quit CCC saying the party has now been “hijacked, bastardised and contaminated” by impostors and fraudsters.
However, Siso told The NewsHawks that the committee is the legitimate structure running the party, especially now that Chamisa has left the party. He said they will work hard to take the party forward.
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

CCC's "Interim Steering Committee" Demands Chamisa Officially Resign From The Party

Mbuso Siso, a member of the self-imposed opposition CCC interim steering committee, which tasked activist Sengezo Tshabangu to recall MPs, senators and councillors, has claimed that the group doesn’t have plans to remove party leader Nelson Chamisa.
Speaking in an interview with <a href="https://x.com/NewsHawksLive/status/1737019473972936794?s=20">The NewsHawks</a>, Siso said the CCC interim steering committee is seeking to correct “many wrongs” within the movement.
He said the recalls have ended and were never intended to trigger a sweeping wave of removals of legitimately elected people’s representatives.
Siso said the recalls were meant to remove MPs, senators and councillors who don’t come from communities they purport to represent and, hence do not represent the legitimate interests of the people.
He insisted that the group behind the recalls is not working in collaboration with ZANU PF but conceded that the plan had been hijacked by some Harare political actors, including those loyal to senior party member Tendai Biti and ZANU PF. Said Siso:
<blockquote>
The plan from the beginning was to recall imposed MPs and other representatives who did not originally come from Bulawayo communities.
Local people, those who come from particular localities concerned, should represent local communities.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s in Bulawayo, Harare, Masvingo, Mutare, Gweru, Kwekwe or Chinhoyi.
The principle is that local politics requires local people to lead because they know local issues, the people’s history, grievances, interests, problems and potential solutions.
When you bring people from elsewhere who don’t know the local history, culture and issues, they can’t be useful representatives of the people.
Local politics is about local issues in a national context.
</blockquote>
However, Biti has on several occasions denied association with Tshabangu and the recalls. Added Siso:
<blockquote>
That’s our motivation, but the process has been hijacked in Harare by Biti’s people and some ZANU PF elements.
It’s no longer what we intended at the start, but there are internal CCC issues which we still need to resolve.
We will keep pushing for those issues to be addressed. We have told Chamisa about them before repeatedly, but they were not dealt with.
We have no intention of removing Chamisa at all, but we want to help him stamp out the problem of impositions.
We are not working with ZANU PF, but if others are now doing that they are doing it in their capacities, not our interim steering committee.
We want a strong opposition to fight for change, not a party of friends and their supporters with imposed candidates.
</blockquote>
CCC lost seven of the nine parliamentary seats that it won in the August 2023 harmonised elections in the 09 December by-election to ZANU PF.
This means that ZANU PF now needs only three more seats to attain a two-thirds majority that gives it enough numbers to amend the constitution thereby further eroding the democratic gains brought about by the 2013 constitution.
Reports claim that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is toying with the idea of removing the presidential term limits, currently two terms, that is ten years, to create an “imperial presidency”.
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