Citizens Coalition for Change president, Nelson Chamisa has dismissed allegations raised by self-styled interim secretary general, Sengezo Tshabangu, that the party has not accounted for over US$2 million received from the European Union during the 2023 harmonised elections.
Tshabangu was speaking during the Asakhe Online program, The Breakfast Club recently and he said they will be sending a letter to Chamisa, demanding accountability for the alleged money.
Chamisa hit back stating that the party did not receive such funds from the EU.
“Integrity matters! We received no cent from the EU. And we are proud of the support from the Citizens particularly those in the diaspora. They have to this day, carried the burden to free our country from dictatorship!” read Chamisa’s post on his X account.
In his allegations, Tshabangu said a party account was opened without the knowledge of the appointed treasurer and this has created issues surrounding who received the funds and how they were used.
“The party already has an existing account, but there are criminals around the president who opened that account without the knowledge of the appointed treasurer. It’s a pseudo account. We had to appoint an acting treasurer in order to facilitate the opening of the account that we are now using,” Tshabangu said.
“The party fears accountability. We know for a fact that received money from the European Union, over US$2 million which was intended to pay the polling agents, food and other election-related amenities so that the election costs would be met. But up to date, our polling agents are not yet paid. We know that the money was disbursed but we do not know where it went. We are going to be writing to the president of the party soon, seeking accountability. We are putting the house in order. We need to establish who received the money and what it was used for. One of the recipients needs to account for that money.”
Speaking of how they have been managing to meet their litigation costs, Tshabangu said they are being assisted by various people who understand the cause they are pushing for.
“It is difficult for us to meet our litigation costs. Our legal team is headed by Advocate Uriri, one of the best lawyers to ever come out of Zimbabwe. He is very expensive. We sat down with him and he said he understood where I was coming from. He said he would get the ball rolling so that the people in general would know what’s going on and understand my cause. He did the first appearance free of charge,” Tshabangu said.
“After that, we started having people coming in to help us meet our legal costs. Some are from the business communities, people with huge amounts of money. They understood our cause and they gave us money to channel to our legal needs. We are accounting for each cent of that money.”
