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Joseph Madzimure Senior Reporter
CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa has been exposed for selecting a convict, Eric Gono, to represent his party in Lobengula-Magwegwe constituency in Bulawayo.
Gono defaulted on community service after he was convicted of public violence together with current Bulawayo deputy Mayor Mlandu Ncube and CCC member Felix Mhaka in July 2018.
Bulawayo magistrate Sithembile Ncube sentenced then aspiring councillor for Ward One, Ncube, Mhaka and Gono to 12 months imprisonment but suspended six months on condition of good behaviour.
The three were ordered to do community service for the remaining six months.
Unlike Gono, Ncube and Mhaka reportedly appealed both their conviction and sentence, and their appeal is said to be still pending.
Following his nomination last Wednesday as CCC’s imposed candidate for Lobengula-Magwegwe constituency, it’s not clear whether Gono had been cleared.
Both his nomination as CCC parliamentary candidate for Lobengula-Magwegwe constituency and his freedom hang in the balance.
In Mvurwi, CCC aspiring candidate for ward 6 Councillor Tonderai Samhu was in 2019 sentenced to six years in jail for obstructing or endangering free movement during riotous disturbances that took place in Mvurwi.
Currently, Samhu and four others are out on bail pending appeal.
Political analysts said Mr Chamisa’s Machiavellian politics were contradictory to democratic principles.
“Decisions in politics make sense when they are collective and reflect the will of the people politicians represent. When you find yourself thinking you know everything, you can dribble and hurt everyone and if only your ideas matter, then you are precipitating into dictatorship. It is unheard of for a lawyer,” said political analyst, Mr Gibson Nyikadzino.
“You can’t be Machiavelli and a democrat at the same time, it’s contradictory, it’s oxymoronic, it’s an aberration”.
An analyst Mr Misheck Kuvarega said the CCC nomination process is opaque, blurry, commandist and inherently undemocratic.
“The world over, all democratic political parties go through primaries when they are choosing candidates to run for public office. This tried and tested method of holding primaries ensures that party cadres can exercise their democratic right to choose candidates of their choice.
“CCC went through an opaque process of choosing candidates that doesn’t allow their party cadres to cast a vote in order to choose their candidates. Ultimately, this gives Nelson Chamisa a chance to hand-pick his political lackeys under the guise of so-called citizen participation”.
Nowhere in the world, Mr Kuvarega said, has a structureless formation assumed State power.
“Just wait and see the implosion of the CCC after the humiliating electoral annihilation that will soon be delivered upon them courtesy of a resurgent and buoyant Zanu PF. Characters like Biti and Ncube are biding their time. They’re just waiting for the moment to pounce on Chamisa as soon as he loses the forthcoming elections”.
Another political analyst Dr Hamadziripi Dube weighed in, saying politics is a game of numbers.
“His deputy Biti and his fellow party old leadership were screened out from the race through elimination by substitution. There is no way Chamisa will ameliorate the misfortunes met by his colleagues to avoid this coming bhora musango,” he said.
Online Reporter