TANAKA FETINANDI
Opposition activist Job Sikhala on Tuesday walked out of Chikurubi Maximum Security prison a free man after spending close to 600 days behind bars.
Immediately, he waded into the chaos that has rocked the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) where calls for him to take over the reins in the embattled party grows louder.
Sikhala had been housed in remand prison for close to two years as he was facing charges relating to inciting public violence during the funeral wake of CCC activist Moreblessing Ali who was murdered in 2022.
He was jointly charged with former Member of Parliament Godfrey Sithole and the two were convicted and handed a wholly suspended two-year sentence.
Immediately after he was released, Sikhala told his supporters amid chants of a new slogan “Zimbabwe” that he will soon announce his political move and admitted the party he was deputy chairman was in chaos.
Pundits are tipping Sikhala to take over the party after its interim leader Nelson Chamisa quit in a huff last week citing infiltration.
“I need to take time to give a proper reflection on what I will do. I am going to have a state of the nation and international address on where I stand in all this chaos. In the shortest possible time I will speak out to the people of Zimbabwe and the world.”
“I am not interested about power. My suffering is not motivated by power but whatever will come after is completely out of question. The biggest deployers of any role in politics are the people and I will listen to the people of Zimbabwe.”
Sikhala accused all protagonists in the CCC of doing nothing to fight for his cause and will not intervene in their fights. He said only family, close friends and allies fought for him while he was in prison.
Meanwhile, after months of silence over the happenings in the CCC camp, Tendai Biti has jumped in to claim the vice presidency of the party saying that he was not going anywhere.
He said the congress of 2019 stands and he remains a “proud leader in the CCC.”
This adds to more drama in the party after Chamisa insisted since its formation that the party had no leaders except himself as an interim president.
Biti was blocked from contesting in Harare East in a move observers say was because of Chamisa’s influence.
“I have just read things in the newspapers and I don’t know whether those letters are true or not but speaking for myself, I am Tendai Biti and I am the vice president of the CCC and I am not going anywhere,” he said.
The opposition party will soon announce its way forward with Chamisa having promised to do that “soon.”
