CCC MPs under pressure to withdraw from National Assembly after Saturday’s contentious by-elections

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CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) Members of Parliament (MP) are at a crossroads as pressure mounts on them to withdraw from the National Assembly following weekend’s controversial by-elections.

 

The remaining CCC MPs are at the centre of the political matrix with uncertainty hovering over them as self proclaimed secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu is recalling legislators.

 

CCC, albeit given a temporary relief by the High Court which granted an interdict in its favour to stop Tshabangu from recalling elected officials, is under pressure from observers and critics to withdraw its legislators.

 

Last week the opposition candidates were expelled from the race in the just ended by-elections with the court ruling that they could not run under the party as they had been recalled by Tshabangu.

 

Political science lecturer at University of Zimbabwe Eldred Masungure said a knee jerk reaction should be avoided by institutionalising CCC.

 

“People should not privilege rage and emotions ahead of logic and rationality. What benefits will this gurwe reaction bring to the CCC, its voters and Zimbabwe generally? And, given ZANU-PF’s shallow or non-existent sense of public shame, it will not in the least be bothered at all by the withdrawals.

 

“Neither will the toady SADC be catalysed to act, what with powerful ANC Secretary Generals Fikile Mbalule grovelling to ZANU-PF. Thinking strategically demands that the CCC go back to basics by abandoning hook, line and sinker that nebulous ‘strategic ambiguity’-informed organisational model and institutionalising the CCC as a political formation. There is no other magic bullet,” said Masunungure.

 

In October, CCC ordered its MPs to disengage from the National Assembly in protest over recall of its members which they described as illegitimate.

 

However, the protest could not deter Tshabangu from calling another batch of MPs before a court interdict.

 

CCC MPs say they are awaiting the party’s directive.

 

Political analyst Rejoice Ngwenya said the withdrawal should be backed by consensus of Zimbabweans to be effective.

 

“I’m not sure how solid CCC’s current political objective is vis a vis being in Parliament. My observations are that Zanu-PF will push Sengezo Tshabangu for more recalls, because their insanity knows no bounds. A pull out that is not backed with country wide citizen solidarity achieves very little.

 

“Opposition is not CCC, but the general populace aggrieved by mutilation of constitutional democracy. So a pull out or not means nothing if two million voters remain quiet,” said Ngwenya. _*NewZimbabwe*_