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Thupeyo Muleya
Beitbridge Bureau
Some CCC senior officials continue to snub Mr Nelson Chamisa’s rallies over his dictatorial tendencies, which saw him throw away names of some top officials that had been selected by his controversial selection panel.
Yesterday, Mr Chamisa cut a lonely figure at Dulivhadzimu Stadium where he addressed what appeared to be a rented crowd, which clapped and ululated at every word he uttered.
Senior leaders including Mr Tendai Biti, Professor Welshman Ncube and Dr Thokozani Khupe, who have been in opposition politics since the year 2000, have not been attending CCC rallies, amid allegations from close sources that they were not happy with the shambolic candidate selection process.
So bad was the chaos that in about 20 constituencies, the CCC fielded two or three candidates, while others opted to stand as independents after being snubbed by Mr Chamisa.
At the rally, which was delayed by a poor sound system, Mr Chamisa was only accompanied by national party organiser, Mr Amos Chibaya and deputy party spokesperson Mr Gift Ostallos Siziba, and a couple of candidates from Beitbridge.
Mr Chamisa took more than one hour to address the crowd because of a poor public address system.
Some party supporters later brought new cables to fix the public address system after 4pm.
Some of the supporters had been stuck in the stadium since 10am.
In his address, the opposition leader promised to roll out policies that the Government is already seized with such as widening the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge highway, offering social safety nets to the elderly and vulnerable people, rural transformation, dam construction, and mineral value addition.
Mr Chamisa also pledged to pay civil servants in US dollars, which the Second Republic is doing, and to review the Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (CALA), which is also underway.
“We have a lot of minerals in this country and under a CCC government, we are going to implement the beneficiation and value addition policy on all exports. At the same time, we want to build new towns in areas where there are mines,” said Mr Chamisa.
He appeared so out of touch with current affairs that he promised to open a birth certificate and an electronic-passport issuing office in Beitbridge, when in fact that service is already being offered, with the community recently saluting President Mnangagwa for setting up the offices last year.
Mr Chamisa also bizarrely promised to build dams across the country, claiming that the country was not harvesting water when it rains, which could be used in times of drought, or to support irrigation farming.
It was a shocking promise considering that the Second Republic has prioritised the construction of 12 high impact dams across the country, headlined by the Lake Gwayi-Shangani in Matabeleland North Province that was mooted by colonisers in 1912 but failed to build it.
Some of the high impact dams such as Marovanyati in Marondera, Chivhu and Muchekeranwa in Buhera, have already been completed and are supporting irrigation agriculture.
Mr Chamisa promised to fight corruption.
Online Reporter