CCC is a rebranded MDC A: Welshman Ncube contradicts Chamisa
Former MDC Alliance vice president Welshman Ncube on Wednesday claimed that he has been sidelined by Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa and as a result, he has no platform to condemn the recall of the party’s representatives in Parliament and councils by Sengezo Tshabangu.
Tshabangu is a former MDC-T provincial chairman, PDP activist, and now the self-proclaimed CCC interim secretary general.
Since October 2023, Tshabangu has recalled over two dozen MPs and senators and over 60 councillors, claiming they ceased being members of the party.
CCC activists loyal to Chamisa have been demanding that Ncube and Tendai Biti, who were both vice presidents in the MDC Alliance before the party was abandoned to form the CCC in January 2022, should speak out and condemn Tshabangu.
Ncube and Biti have been absent from the party’s major political gatherings in the run-up to the elections and after the elections.
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When CCC supporter Chris Chidarikire confronted Ncube on X over why he hadn’t attended the party’s structure called the Citizens National Assembly (CNA), Ncube said: “Am I a member of CNA? If so, how did I become a member?”
When Chidarikire rephrased his question to ask if Ncube was “in the leadership” of the CCC, he appeared to suggest that he should be, but he was not because the party had unconstitutionally abandoned its structure. Ncube said:
As of January 22, 2022, I was vice president of MDC Alliance which on that date by resolution of its National Council resolved to reconstitute itself as CCC and participate in the March 2022 by-elections under that name. At that meeting, the National Council didn’t resolve to dissolve itself.
When challenged to condemn Tshabangu, Ncube said he doesn’t have the mandate to do so as he is no longer in leadership structures. He said:
When Thokozani Khupe and Douglas Mwonzora started recalling MDC Alliance MPs and councillors did I not, in my capacity as vice president of MDC Alliance come out guns blazing right up to the end?… In what capacity do you want me to insert myself now?
Critics argue Chamisa collapsed the structures he had in the MDC Alliance to concentrate power on himself resulting in a fallout with some of the founders of the party among them Ncube and Biti.
Chamisa insists CCC has no links whatsoever with the MDC Alliance, saying it’s a new political party altogether.