We’ll not be pushed by critics: CCC 

Source: We’ll not be pushed by critics: CCC – NewsDay Zimbabwe

BY PRIDE MZARABANI
THE opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has said it will not be goaded by critics calling on the party led by Nelson Chamisa to reveal its electoral strategies, party structures and policies ahead of the 2023 polls.

Chamisa launched CCC party in February this year after MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora claimed the MDC Alliance name, symbols and headquarters ahead of the March 26 by-elections.

Speaking during an interview on Alpha Media Holdings Heart and Soul TV (HStv)’s “FreeTalk” with Blessed Mhlanga, CCC interim spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said CCC party structures and strategies would be defined by citizens.

“Obviously, it’s a fallacy that CCC is a one-man band. On the contrary, what our six months lifespan has shown us is that it is a broad-based citizens’ movement that has defied all the odds. No party that is not organised can win elections the way we have been winning, and winning so decisively,” Mahere said.

She said CCC would not succumb to external pressure on party structures, saying it was building them from grassroot level and through consultations with citizens.

“We will launch our party and all its leadership will be made public. What Chamisa has said time and again is that this party is yet to launch. Our politics is not business as usual. We saw how Zanu PF created its formation, and how the MDC set itself up and that didn’t work. It is time to start doing things differently and to depart from the old ways. I think the fallacy that exists in the discourse at the moment is that the only way to structure a political party is how Zanu PF is structured.”

Mahere said her party was going to the people to find out what kind of structures they wanted, using a bottom-up approach.

“It’s not an elite conversation; it is across all provinces of the country and in villages,” she said.

CCC has been heavily criticised on social media by Zanu PF supporters for lack of structures and a party constitution.

Exiled former Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo and journalist Edmund Kudzai have also been vocally agitating for CCC to have formal structures.