Zimbabwean Opposition Leader Chamisa Quits ‘Hijacked’ Party

Prominent opposition figure, Nelson Chamisa, announced his departure from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party, exactly two years after its establishment. Chamisa claimed that the party had been seized by the ruling ZANU-PF in a power grab, leading him to disassociate himself from CCC. 

The party, which garnered significant urban support, secured 103 seats in Zimbabwe’s main parliamentary house and dominated urban councils in the previous year’s general election. However, internal disputes arose as some CCC members were purportedly removed from their positions by an individual claiming to be the party’s secretary general, an assertion contested by Chamisa and the CCC as an impostor. 

Chamisa, who emerged as the successor to the late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in 2018, faced internal leadership conflicts that led to the formation of CCC in 2022 after losing control battles over the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The 45-year-old lawyer and pastor, who contested and rejected narrow losses in the last two presidential elections to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, suggested the possibility of forming a new opposition movement in the future.