Chamisa loyalists fail to answer Hwende’s brutal q...

Chamisa loyalists fail to answer Hwende’s brutal question

The Betrayal of Nelson Chamisa: A Cautionary Tale in Politics

ZimNow Political Desk

"Let’s assume that all those in Parliament sold out. Ko imimi muripanze what have you done since August 2023 to fight for the people? If elections were stolen makaitei or murikuitei nazvo!! Is your solution to better the lives of Zimbabweans forming another political party?" — Charlton Hwende on X

Seemingly targeting Nelson Chamisa, former Citizens Coalition for Change secretary-general Charlton Hwende’s post on X landed like a political grenade— and it detonated with more than 400 replies.

The answers revealed both the deep resentment towards MPs who remained in Parliament after Chamisa’s exit and the lack of a clear alternative strategy from his supporters:

Advance: “What we did was voting for you… you can’t ask a single person what did he do yet they risked voted you and becoming agents.”
Samuel Tunduwani: “Citizens vote and reps fight for them. If they fail, they revert to us… we dug the river, waiting for water to cascade down.”
Khilikhiti Wendaba: “You traded our vote for personal gains… can you object to constitutional violations? No you can’t.”
Seven: “By staying in Parliament you legitimised the stolen elections… you could have cost ZANU PF its two-thirds.”
Bitto: “The opposition was dead long before any recalls… chants like ‘mukomana ngaapinde’ replaced strategy.”
Sheunesu Chikuse: “He told us God is in it… then says abirirwa. Is he trying to say Mwari vakabirirwawo here?”

Few, if any, of the responses engaged with Hwende’s core challenge: what have Chamisa loyalists actually done since August 2023 to shift the political balance?

From CCC Split to ZANU PF Supermajority

When Chamisa resigned from CCC in January 2024, he left behind a fractured movement already reeling from controversial recalls by secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu.

Those recalls triggered by-elections in December 2023, February 2024, and April 2024. With opposition candidates blocked or divided, ZANU PF snatched multiple seats — turning a 176-seat majority into 192 seats, a two-thirds supermajority that allows the ruling party to change the constitution without opposition input, m.

The paradox: while Chamisa loyalists branded remaining MPs as sellouts, it was the mass withdrawals and blocked candidacies that ultimately paved the way for ZANU PF’s dominant position, a big plus for the 2030 movement to extend Mnangagwa’s ter

Factional Fires in Chamisa’s Camp

Hwende’s challenge comes as tensions within the Chamisa-aligned faction under Jameson Timba have allegedly hit boiling point. With Chamisa expected to launch a new political platform, insiders say CCC activists are locked in bitter feuds over who will have his ear.

WhatsApp groups and X threads have turned into battlegrounds, with accusations of being “ZANU PF proxies,” name-calling, and the leaking of private conversations.

An “exclusion strategy” to sideline perceived sellouts is believed to be an excuse to purge those who complain about “self-appointed prefects” policing speech and imposing decisions in Chamisa’s name without grassroots consent.

Chamisa’s Silence and the Road Ahead

Chamisa has announced his intent to create a movement that seems to mirror CCC’s structureless set up which led to its shattering. What is emerging from the reactions to Hwende’s post and to Chamisa’s announcement is that the opposition remains fragmented, distracted by internal wars, and without a unified strategy — a vacuum ZANU PF is already using to entrench its legislative power.

Hwende’s question, echoed across X, still hangs in the air: if the election was stolen, what have you done about it?