Some disgruntled members of the Citizen’s Coalition for Change (CCC) who were not successful in their bid to represent the party in the upcoming elections are reportedly set to appeal before the final list of successful candidates is announced in a week’s time, CITE can reveal.
This comes after the CCC had a citizens caucus meeting on Saturday in all provinces to confirm its election nominees, despite allegations that some significant names were left off the list.
Some candidates who failed to make it in Bulawayo include current Bulawayo Metropolitan MP, Jasmine Toffa who was beaten by newcomer Minenhle Gumede, who will run for the Bulawayo North parliamentary seat if she is successful.
Gumede, who was nominated for Bulawayo North, also came tops against CCC Bulawayo Provincial Spokesperson, Swithern Chirowodza and Elvis Mujeri.
Njube -Lobengula MP Gift Banda, was disqualified with sources claiming he attempted to force his way into the contest and allegedly bussed people but the decision to cut him off was held by the party.
Former Deputy Mayor and Ward 3 councillor, Tinashe Kambarami whose tenure in the Bulawayo City Council was marred by legal battles also failed to make it with sources alleging that he may be among those who will file an appeal.
“Candidates who were dissatisfied with Saturday’s outcome might file their appeals within seven days before the final list is made public,” said reliable party sources.
“Naturally there won’t be an announcement within that period as we have seven days to make appeals. Judging from that it is quite definite there won’t be any announcement this week. There can’t be an announcement of who made it before these appeal processes are through, it’s only logical,” said the sources.
Some of the sources said they were ready to file their own appeals in certain wards since the candidate selection form stated appeals must be made within seven days after which there will be an announcement.
“The community caucus process happened on Saturday, so the next seven days will exclude weekends. Sunday was a weekend, then we have this Monday to Friday, which is five days then Monday to Tuesday, the other week making it to seven meaning the announcement will be made any time from next week Wednesday,” sources said.
According to sources, there is also a widespread misconception that the person with the most nomination votes will inevitably be the candidate, which was not the case.
“We have what we call ‘Consensus preference’ which when defined in the media is mobilisation of consensus in relation to numbers. But the person who gets the highest numbers in consensus preference will not automatically be the candidate and that is what people must bear in mind,” said the sources who explained that candidates had to satisfy other set criteria before representing people.
“There are boxes to tick such as if the said person has a role in the party, which position did they have, what does their CV look like, what is their credibility, loyalty and service in the party? All these play a part, consensus preference is just one of the boxes that has to be ticked.”
Some of the councillors said to have made it for the council elections list include:
Mpumelelo Moyo – Ward 26, Donaldson Mabuto – Ward 9, Tinevimbo Maphosa – Ward 21, Tawanda Ruzive – Ward 5 and Edwin Ndlovu – Ward 8.
Some of the newcomers gunning for council seats include Human Resources Officer for Tendy Three Investments (TTI) Melissa Mabeza who will contest in Ward 4, Mxolisi Mahlangu – Ward 3, Nkosi Hove -Ward 6 and Adrian Moyo – Ward 2.
CCC member, Discent Bajila was nominated as the parliamentary candidate for Emakhandeni -Luveve while Dr Thokozani Khupe received most consensus preference votes to represent the party in the newly constituted Cowdray Park constituency.
