Welshman Ncube fires salvo at Chamisa, says he turned CCC into his own party

By Staff Writer

THE Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) acting president, Welshman Ncube has castigated his predecessor ,Nelson Chamisa for transforming the party into a one man operation.

Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with Bulawayo-based online news channel CITE, Ncube indirectly took a dig at Chamisa’s leadership style, which he said created the crisis bedevilling the opposition.

“We got here because we now had a situation where(by) collectively, the democratic collective leadership no longer worked as one and we were unable to meet as elected individuals, as elected leadership, to address the challenges that we were facing,” he said.

Ncube said there were fundamental differences in the party, with key meetings and other platforms for engagement suspended.
“We had suspended meetings of the national council. Some of us believe that we are fighting Zanu PF which is authoritarian, which is undemocratic and which has one centre of power. We must demonstrate that we are the opposite of Zanu PF,” he said.

“We must do while in opposition things we are expected to do when we get into government, not running an autocratic, an authoritarian, theocratic opposition then expect sincere genuine people to believe that once in power, you no longer believe in autocracy and theocracy.

“These are the differences we had in opposition.”

Ncube said he was elected to be the first acting vice-president of the opposition because of his seniority.

“Now that the president of the party had resigned and dissociated himself with the party, it was necessary for us to step up to the plate, to take responsibility and to ensure that the party is brought back on track, and hence that we will rotate,” he said.

“And the standing committee decided that I will go first as being the most senior of the three vice-presidents as elected at Gweru, so that, therefore, I have been mandated in the next 90 days to do all that I can, working with the other vice-presidents, working with the secretariat of the party, working with the rest of the departments of the party to address the challenges that the party face today.”

Ncube revealed that he last spoke to Chamisa two months ago.