Judge reserves judgment in CCC Tshabangu interdict case

Harare (New Ziana) – The High Court has reserved judgment in a case the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) is seeking an interdict to stop Sengezo Tshabangu who claims to be the party’s interim secretary general from recalling its elected representatives from local authorities, Parliament and the Senate.

Justice Tawanda Chitapi, after hearing arguments from Advocate Obey Shava for the CCC and Advocate Lewis Uriri for Tshabangu said he needed time to consider the submissions that include large volumes of documents filed by both parties and advise when he is ready with his ruling.

In a brief address to the media outside the court, Advocate Shava said the gist of the CCC case is that Tshabangu is not a representative official of the CCC and has no authority to recall any elected officials of the party from Parliament, local authorities and the Senate.

Earlier in court he had pleaded for the court to protect his client from the actions of Tshabangu because the CCC that Tshabangu represented was different from that of his client led by Nelson Chamisa as shown by the different constitutions both parties had filed with the court.

He said the purported constitution of the CCC that Tshabangu submitted made reference to members of the MDC, a different political party to the CCC as shown by the constitution document the CCC submitted to the court. In response, Advocate Lewis Uriri for Tshabangu said the CCC was simply a new label that the MDCA national executive council came up with for the purposes of taking part in elections when it met in January 2022.

At the same meeting the executive council agreed that the office bearers of the MDCA would be the office bearers of the CCC hence Tshabangu is the interim secretary.

The MDCA constitution with appropriate amendments to read CCC was to be the constitution of the CCC and it is this document that the vice president of the CCC, Job Sikhala deposited with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). He said the document that the CCC had submitted in court was fraudulent and meant to deceive the court.

Tshabangu started by recalling 14 CCC parliamentarians and councillors in different parts of the country leading to by-elections set for December 9. He struck again on November 7 when he recalled Harare Mayor, Ian Makone, his deputy, Kudzai Kadzombe and seven other councillors in the Harare City Council Denford Ngadziore (Ward 16), Lovejoy Chitegu (Ward 36) and Samuel Gwenzi (Ward 5) and PR councillors Chido Hamauswa, Tariboyi Sabina, Florence Cheza and Fadzai Matimba.

He claimed that he targeted representatives that were imposed by party leader, Nelson Chamisa when he led his novel community consensus candidate selection process early this year to choose party representatives for the August 2023 general elections. Critics however claim Chamisa used the unprecedented substitute to party primaries to purge some party adversaries in place of loyalists in their positions.

Chamisa supporters in CCC, however claim Tshabangu is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s sympathiser and is acting to ultimately help him gain a two-thirds majority in parliament to change the constitution.
The recalls are however linked to a certain circle of disgruntled CCC party politicians.

New Ziana