The trailblazing Nelson Chamisa-led Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) is causing Zanu PF serious headaches, with the ruling party's presidium openly acknowledging it was having sleepless nights plotting how to stop the three-month-old party from claiming its sculp at next year's general elections.
The ominous admission was made by disgraced former vice president Kembo Mohadi, who recently urged Zanu PF functionaries to work around the clock to stop Chamisa.
The Zanu PF co- vice president also said Chamisa's party was eating into the ruling party's rural strongholds as evidenced by results of the March 26 by-elections.
He said this during an induction workshop for the ruling party's Matabeleland South leadership in Beitbridge which ended on Saturday.
The CCC won 19 of the 28 contested parliamentary seats in the March 26 by-elections with Zanu PF taking the remainder.
Mohadi said this was worrying the Zanu PF leadership.
"We did not have MDC until 1999 so it came from us. We were not good shepherds. We lost some sheep in our flock, and they have come to haunt us," Mohadi said.
"If we had listened to the workers, we would not be having this MDC headache. This opposition party did not exist until 1999... the party has come back to haunt us and cause us headaches. These lost sheep are giving us sleepless nights. It's a daunting task to get rid of them but we should do it through votes," he said.
In 2018, President Emmerson Mnangagwa won the presidential election with a slight margin, but Chamisa insists he was robbed of victory through rigging mechanisms.
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Chamisa and Mnangangwa will square off in 2023 again as they have been endorsed by their supporters.
Recently, the CCC launched a campaign targeting rural areas, Zanu PF's known strongholds.
Mohadi said he could not fathom an opposition victory in the 2023 polls as he pleaded with the party faithful to expend their energies towards ensuring a Mnangagwa and Zanu PF victory next year.
"Your invitation of gurus from the Chitepo College of Ideology shows the seriousness of the business you are gathered for. It is key to understand what values our great party stands for," Mohadi said.
"We should ward off competition from opposition. We need to be stronger than ever before and we should remain alive as elections are the survival of our Independence," he said.
