Former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MP for Binga North, Prince Dubeko Sibanda, has resigned from the opposition party claiming that the former leader, Nelson Chamisa, had “correctly” observed that the party has “become infiltrated and contaminated beyond redemption.”
According to Sibanda, the remaining members claiming leadership or expressing intentions to lead CCC were just interested in titles and had lost motivation to serve the people.
Sibanda was elected as the MP for Binga North in the 2023 August election but was among the first batch of 15 elected politicians recalled from Parliament by Sengezo Tshabangu posing as the CCC interim secretary general on October 3, 2023.
In a statement issued on Friday, Sibanda stated he resisted the urge to immediately follow Chamisa who resigned on January 24, 2024, hoping that the remaining members “could salvage the infrastructure of the party.”
Sibanda said he remained in the party stayed to “hedge our deployees, most of whom are cadres of great integrity, against the shocks that would emanate from his departure.”
However, his attempt to salvage the party by initiating the formation of a steering committee to run the affairs of the party through the Citizens National Assembly (CNA) meeting on January 30, 2024 was “in vain.”
“The events preceding the meeting and those that immediately followed it, have left me with no doubt, as correctly observed by Advocate Nelson Chamisa, that the Citizens Coalition for Change party has become infiltrated and contaminated beyond redemption,” said the former MP.
He claimed CCC in its current form and nature, can no longer carry the hopes of the majority or to be saved.
“All those claiming leadership or intent to lead the party are no longer driven and motivated by the struggle of the majority. They are mere political middlemen and brokers angling to curry favour with the regime in exchange for trinkets and funds from the Political Parties Finance Act. The agenda of the majority of suffering Zimbabweans has long been lost to them,” Sibanda claimed.
“It has become evident that whoever is going to access the funds of the political party will do so with the blessing and approval of the regime. Such blessing and approval do not come at a cheap price. The price is to compromise the people’s struggle and be a pliant opposition to the regime.”
Sibanda asserted that it was not his goal to be a member of an opposition party loyal to Zanu PF or to participate in the plunder of the country’s resources.
“In such an instance, you cease to be a fighter for the voiceless majority who are suffocating under the bad governance of Zanu PF. I will never compromise the struggle,” he said, adding his disassociation from CCC was made “with a heavy heart.”
“I have to announce my total disassociation with and disengagement from a party that we worked so hard to build. In that organisation, I leave colleagues who are genuine and credible cadres of the struggle, most of whom I worked with. Unfortunately, they have been put in an invidious position in which they have to choose between their conscious loyalty to the struggle for all and the need to meet their immediate physical needs.”
However, the former MP said the majority of people remaining in CCC were “innocent victims of the political situation.”
“I pray that they get strength in the face of the pressure they face. Fortunately for me, I was assisted by the regime and its proxies in our former party not to face the same predicament,” Sibanda said.
The former MP noted that his leaving CCC does not imply that he was retiring from politics.
“I joined politics primarily to push the agenda of the marginalised, the weak, the downtrodden and the excluded. The mission has not been accomplished,” Sibanda said, adding that he too “will continue to engage with the communities and other stakeholders to keep the base solid as we await the direction that Advocate Nelson Chamisa promised the nation.”
