Chamisa rules out reunion with former opposition allies

CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) founder Nelson Chamisa has shut the door on the possibility of reuniting with his former colleagues in the opposition following renewed calls for unity.

Chamisa accused his erstwhile allies of collaborating with Zanu PF to destroy the opposition and, in particular, to undermine him personally.

After abandoning the CCC in January 2024, Chamisa has now formally announced his return to active politics, saying the opposition has been left with a vacuum that has remained unfilled during his two-year absence from the political frontline.

With repeated calls for the opposition to unite against Zanu PF and its controversial 2030 Agenda — which seeks to extend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term beyond 2028 — Chamisa said he has no interest in working again with “old faces” or incorporating them into his new democratic project.

Addressing journalists in Harare recently, MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora appealed to Chamisa and other former opposition figures to reunite and form a united front against Zanu PF.

In response, Chamisa dismissed Mwonzora’s overtures, telling him to forget about any possibility of a reunion and to “smile” instead. He accused Mwonzora of acting as a Zanu PF agent in a calculated effort to destroy the opposition.

Chamisa said the movement that is about to be launched would not carry the baggage of the past.

“I can tell you that everything in the past is not going to be part of the new. You don’t use old wine skins to carry the new wine and we are clear about that,” Chamisa told journalists in Harare Friday.

His fallout with former colleagues, he said, stems from what he described as their cosy relationship with Zanu PF, which he believes was designed to weaken both the opposition and himself in particular.

“They worked with Zanu-PF to destroy us and that is common position. Forgiveness is about us not carrying those grudges but looking forward being united by everything. But you can’t repeat the same mistakes. Only a dog feeds on its vomit as it’s meal. We are not dogs,” Chamisa said.

During his tenure as Secretary-General of the MDC, Mwonzora purged legislators and councillors from Parliament and local authorities, targeting those he perceived to be aligned with Chamisa in a move widely seen as an attempt to weaken his rival.

Chamisa also lost access to funds allocated to the MDC under the Political Parties Finance Act, despite being the party’s public face during the disputed 2018 elections. He suffered the same fate under the CCC.

Chamisa’s reign as CCC leader was short-lived after Sengezo Tshabangu emerged unexpectedly post 2023 and declared himself the party’s Secretary-General — a position that did not exist in the CCC during Chamisa’s leadership.

Nevertheless, Tshabangu, through the courts, went on to wield enormous influence, issuing instructions that led to the purge of newly elected CCC MPs and councillors from Parliament and local authorities across the country.

He also blocked the purged representatives from contesting by-elections, leaving them politically stranded.

Analysts have argued that Tshabangu was simply a Zanu PF Trojan horse, pointing to the fact that he won almost every court challenge concerning his authority to expel elected representatives.

Frustrated by these developments, Chamisa eventually left the CCC and returned to the drawing board.

He told journalists in Harare that the citizens movement is already gaining traction in rural areas and that deployees are active in communities, energising and conscientising the support base ahead of the launch of what he described as his new political “baby”.