Mwonzora claims ‘CCC’ Bulawayo party offices

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Douglas Mwonzora on Wednesday claimed his party’s ownership of an office building in Bulawayo at the heart of a tug-of-war by rival factions in the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party.

The CCC has been thrown into turmoil by a leadership tussle pitting party interim secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu, and ex-leader Nelson Chamisa, which has been raging for months.

The tussle forced Chamisa to throw in the towel and resign as CCC leader last week, which immediately shifted the focus of the infighting in the party from leadership, to control of assets.

On Tuesday, CCC youths aligned to Chamisa seized party offices in Bulawayo, and rebranded them, declaring Tshabangu a nonentity in the party.

Chamisa himself has not indicated his next move after leaving the CCC, but the Bulawayo youths declared him their leader for eternity.

But the tussle for the Bulawayo party offices took a new turn on Wednesday, when Mwonzora laid claim to the property for the MDC, describing the youths who seized it as ‘criminals.’

“Yesterday (Tuesday) we woke up to the realization that some criminals had invaded and painted our Blue Isle offices blue. These are people who apparently are preparing to form a new party,” he said in a statement.

“We place it on record that these offices and many others in the country belong to the MDC, the paperwork attesting to that is available,” he said.

Mwonzora’s claim reignites his long-running political feud with Chamisa, dating back to the time they were both in top leadership positions in the MDC.

Chamisa was deposed as leader of the MDC a few years ago in a palace coup led by a party faction Mwonzora was a key member of.

This prompted him to form the CCC party which, ironically, Tshabangu has also robbed him of in a carbon copy manner Mwonzora’s faction did.

The MDC leader vowed to wrestle back the Bulawayo offices from the youths aligned to Chamisa, saying the seizure was probably intended to draw public sympathy, and provoke the MDC.

“The reason (for the office seizure) is to disturb the peaceful and steady progress that the MDC is currently making in national politics.

Another reason is to find a weak enemy and get us to retaliate so that they look like victims,” Mwonzora said.

“The third (reason) is to remove the great focus of the MDC by engaging us in the race to the bottom. The fourth is that they hope to get a beating from us as usual so that they look like victims and get the sympathy of the Zimbabwean people,” he added.

New Ziana