Sikhala dumps CCC, hints on new political party

Gibson Nyikadzino-Herald Correspondent 

FORMER Zengeza West legislator and CCC interim deputy chairperson Mr Job Sikhala yesterday walked out of the fractured opposition CCC and outlined a process to create a new political party.

In an unusual move, officials from some Western embassies attended his press conference in Harare yesterday.

Mr Sikhala, recently released from remand prison, said he would meet his political goals as he was not a man of “empty threats”.

He also made thinly veiled attacks directed at former CCC leader Mr Nelson Chamisa, who has also walked out of the party, for having “vision without action”.

Mr Sikhala hinted at a strain in relations with his former ally, Mr Chamisa, whom he did not mention when he thanked people who supported him and his family during his time in prison.

This comes after Mr Sikhala, upon his release from prison last month, told the media that CCC protagonists did nothing to fight for him.

Outlining the way he would like to see a new political party formed, he said: “To all those who have retained their democratic right to cling to the CCC carcass, I wish them all the best in their project. The way forward on what should be done from here will come from the people through a mass nationwide democratic consultative process.

“The process will eventually lead to the convening of the national people’s democratic convention. The input and ideas that will come from the people will be collated and coalesced by the national democratic taskforce made up of seconded persons from different constituent bodies who will be the conveners of the national democratic peoples convention,” Mr Sikhala said.

The opposition activist outlined how and who his consultative-led process would engage to have a “broad-based mass democratic movement for everyone in advancement of the mass democratic struggle in the fashion of the United Democratic Front.”

Mr Sikhala, who was a member of the original MDC before leaving to form his own party, initially joined the alliance of the MDC factions in 2018, before moving into the CCC.

Yesterday, he said the opposition leadership had to deliver on their promises and stop hiding behind spin doctored evasions where they evade accountability, which is what Mr Chamisa did in the CCC.

In the CCC Mr Chamisa was criticised for evading accountability by adopting what he termed “strategic ambiguity” which kept his allies and followers in the dark as he made solo decisions without setting up structures or consulting those in interim positions. 

Mr Sikhala added: “Do not promise what you cannot deliver, do not misrepresent, do not hide behind spin doctored evasions, do not suppress obligations, do not evade accountability, and do not accept the survival of the fittest pressures. 

“We promise that we will stand by our word and deliver in terms of our pact. We are not men and women of empty threats.”