Zanu PF has labelled Nelson Chamisa’s Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party “evil”, amid reports that the ruling party is panicking over the momentum that is accompanying the new opposition party.
Chamisa and his followers last week dumped the MDC Alliance party after Douglas Mwonzora grabbed its name. This is despite the fact that Mwonzora had his own MDC-T party. To get rid of the name and party controversies the main opposition leader dumped MDC Alliance and its red colour and formed the CCC. The new party adopted the yellow and gold colours and its reflectors ahead of future elections.
With by-elections around the corner, the CCC party has started popularising the name and colours.
But Zanu PF has also started bad-mouthing its rival calling it an “evil party”, and that the CCC stole its colours. Yesterday, at the launch of the Zanu PF by-election campaign in St Mary’s, Chitungwiza, the party’s acting youth league secretary Tendai Chirau, provincial chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa, deputy national political commissar Omega Hungwe told dozens of party supporters that Chamisa’s party must be ignored as it had nothing to offer, including the yellow colour.
They also described CCC’s pointed finger symbol as “satanic”.
Chirau said the yellow colour belonged to Zanu PF since the liberation struggle.
“When the liberation struggle was fought, it was Zanu PF that mobilised the masses and one of the key fundamentals was the fight for mineral resources, the fight for independence and that is why Zanu PF chose yellow as (one of) its colours.
“The reason was because it was symbolising the national resources in terms of mineral wealth,” Chirau said.
“So these minerals we still have them up to this day and this explains why Zimbabwe has the largest number of artisanal miners and indigenous people who own minerals.
“Yellow, to us, represents wealth, it’s not just the colour that we took on ourselves, but most importantly, you should also take the fact that we have four colours, (that is) green and yellow, red and black.
“These colours will never change because of someone who wants to take them. They remain our colours, they symbolise the importance of the rich minerals that we have.”
Masimirembwa meanwhile claimed the CCC party had grabbed Zanu PF’s colours.
“They want to shine with the yellow colour. Yellow has always been a Zanu PF colour. It is our special colour as Zanu PF because we brought independence. Yellow represents the wealth of the country. The wealth of this country was brought in the country from whites by Zanu PF and not by CCC,” he said.
Hungwe said: “Voting for MDC or CCC shows that you are lost. Do you know what CCC means? It’s an animal that was spoken about in the book of Revelations and it means being used by the devil or the beast,” she claimed.
In response to the Zanu PF claims, CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said Zanu PF was in “panic mode so they are desperately trying to dampen the spirits of the people.
“Yellow is a colour that symbolises hope, energy and a fresh start. The CCC citizen movement has thrown Zanu PF into panic mode so they are desperately trying to dampen the spirits of the people who are ready to win the nation for change.
“They won’t succeed. CCC is here to stay. CCC is here ready to lead. CCC is ready to secure victory,” Mahere said.
