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Tshabangu succumbs to pressure, attends disciplinary hearing

Sengezo Tshabangu

HARARE, Feb 12 (NewsDay Live) - Opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC)'s self-imposed secretary-general Sengezo Tshabangu has made a U-turn and resolved to appear before party leader Welshman Ncube's disciplinary hearing committee.

Ncube summoned Tshabangu after the latter made unilateral changes to the composition of parliamentary committees led by the opposition party, and demoted legislators aligned to Ncube.

Tshabangu had earlier told NewsDay that he would not attend the disciplinary hearing citing the ongoing court cases, before making a U-turn Wednesday.

"Senator Tshabangu, CCC's leader of the opposition in Parliament, will today appear at a purported hearing to respond to undisclosed charges before a patently illegal setup that has all the trappings of a sham kangaroo court that is in pursuit of a highly personalised and a manifestly malicious agenda whose only purpose is clearly to destabilise the party," Tshabangu's spokesperson Nqobizitha Mlilo said.

"At the so-called hearing, maliciously instigated by Prof Welshman Ncube using a coterie of his bootlickers from his MDC-Green cabal that masquerade as CCC, Senator Tshabangu will argue, amongst other things that despite repeatedly asking for it, he has not been furnished with a charge sheet. He does not know what he is accused of. He does not know his accuser or accusers or their evidence or witnesses because he has not been told," Mlilo added.

Tshabangu claims the disciplinary hearing was a nonentity as the individual appointed as the arbiter general was "a well-known personal friend of Ncube."

"There is no - and there can be no - legally valid national disciplinary committee constituted in terms of the constitution of the party. This is because the terms of office of all Article 6 organs of the party, save the party parliamentary caucus and the local government caucus, expired on 27 May 2024.

The national dsciplinary committee appointed by Professor Welshman Ncube as recently as 20 October 2024, which is full of MDC-Green acolytes, has no more power on Senator Tshabangu or any CCC member than a beauty pageant panel," Mlilo said.

"Given the foregoing, Senator Tshabangu finds it most regrettable that the party is being exposed to ridicule and being derailed from its focus and work by Prof Welshman Ncube's single-minded, highly personalised and shockingly malicious agenda; all for the sole purpose of causing incoherence within the party, particularly the party parliamentary caucus and the local government caucus at a time when these are required to undertake important work in the national interest."

Tshabangu threatened to use the party's parliamentary caucus and party local government caucus, which consists of his appointees, to take action against Ncube.

The outcome of the hearing is yet to be made public.

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