‘l have not been in dialogue with anyone’— Chamisa denies Geza’s claims over roping him in planned protests
FORMER Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) president and stalwart of the opposition, Nelson Chamisa, has denied any agreement with the outspoken and now expelled Zanu PF Central Committee member, Blessed Runesu Geza.
The key opposition figure in Zimbabwean politics is distancing himself from Geza’s push against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s hyped ‘2030 agenda’ and the mass protests planned for March 31, 2025.
Geza, who has been in hiding for weeks after police announced he was a wanted person, made his address to the nation Tuesday evening from an undisclosed location via YouTube.
In it, he dropped names of several opposition figures, including Chamisa, former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, and Job Sikhala.
Geza claimed these influential opposition activists had agreed to get behind the protests, which aims to get Mnangagwa out of office as soon as possible.
However, Chamisa himself – who is opposed to Mnangagwa extending his term beyond 2028 and has repeatedly urged the Zanu PF leader to stand down and allow fresh blood to take Zimbabwe forward – has said while his door is open for constructive dialogue with anyone, he has not been involved in any discussions about recent events, including the call for protests against the 82-year-old President.
“I want to clarify that my door is always open to speak with anyone who reaches out to me for constructive conversations and nation building, but I have not been involved in recent dialogues with anyone. I do not want to be made the focal point of things that have nothing to do with me,” Chamisa wrote on X Friday.
In his address, Geza condemned the arrest and imprisonment of opposition leaders like Senator Jameson Timba and Job Sikhala as unwarranted.
This was perhaps a canny move, calculated to win their support in the push to block Mnangagwa’s potential presidential term limit beyond 2028.
Geza, a former intelligence operative, even suggested that opposition politicians are also backing Retired General Constantino Chiwenga’s bid to take over from Mnangagwa.
“We have spoken with all political players. The likes of Chamisa, Sikhala, Biti, Komichi and Mwonzora. We did not leave anyone behind. We have agreed the way forward. And among all these people, no one does not like Chiwenga,” Geza said.
While Geza’s utterances hold a legitimate cause to free Zimbabweans from a possible dynasty, they have stirred controversy.
Many on social media are warning that the opposition should not be taken for a ride by the fractured ruling elite again, as they were in 2017 when they supported the military coup, only for Zanu PF to claim ownership of the birth of the Second Republic afterwards. – _*NewZimbabwe*_
