HARARE – Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) MP for Mount Pleasant Fadzayi Mahere has announced she was resigning from parliament in solidarity with Nelson Chamisa, who quit as leader of the main opposition Thursday citing relentless siege on his party by the state.
In a statement she posted on X, the legislator, who is just five months into her first ever term as an MP, described CCC as “captured”, adding it was now “untenable” for her to continue wearing the party’s badge in parliament.
She cited continued recalls visited upon elected representatives by self-styled CCC interim secretary general Sengezo Tshabangu as evidence the party has been infiltrated by the state.
“The assault on the will of the people, the tainted state of Parliament, coupled with sundry breaches of Parliamentary privilege, illegal suspensions and the decision by President Nelson Chamisa to dissociate himself from the captured CCC have made it untenable for me to continue in my role as a member of parliament for Mt Pleasant Constituency under the CCC banner,” Mahere said.
She becomes the first sitting MP to voluntarily exit parliament following the resignation of the former CCC leader.
READ FULL STATEMENT FROM FADZAYI MAHERE
RESIGNATION FROM PARLIAMENT
Above all, I want to thank you. I do not take your confidence in me for granted. In fact, it has been the honour of my life to represent you. This is not the end for us but the beginning of a different journey.
One of my first promises to you was to always be honest, transparent and accountable in my decisions. It is in this spirit that I wish to lay out my reasons for leaving the Citizen’s Coalition for Change and resigning from Parliament with immediate effect.
When the CCC was launched in January of 2022, it was with the shared understanding that this new movement would be underpinned by the core value of being citizen-centred. It would put the welfare and aspirations of constituents like you at the heart of all decision-making. Our goal was to build a new Zimbabwe that offered dignity, prosperity and opportunity for everyone.
We agreed to run under the leadership of President Nelson Chamisa as we sought to introduce a new way of doing politics. Central to this objective was a belief that we would put the people first.
In the wake of the jarring electoral fraud we witnessed in August 2023, we made the tough decision to represent those hard-won constituencies in an effort to push the democratic process from multiple fronts.
Despite numerous odds, we fought hard to push back against unjust, anti-people pronouncements like the 2024 Budget, the fees crisis in higher education, the power crisis, the broken economy and the imposition of candidates following a series of fraudulent recalls.
Despite our focus on a battle of ideas and policy, the regime chose the low road of an unconstitutional onslaught on the will of the people. They used surrogates and dark actors such as a Mr Tshabangu, whom I do not know and have not met.
Their goal is to force the two-thirds majority they failed to garner in August 2023 despite unprecedented electoral malpractices that left the region, and indeed the globe, in shock.
We have seen the widespread abuse of state institutions which have effectively handed over all levers of control of the CCC to this imposter.
The assault on the will of the people, the tainted state of Parliament, coupled with sundry breaches of Parliamentary privilege, illegal suspensions and the decision by President Nelson Chamisa to dissociate himself from the captured CCC have made it untenable for me to continue in my role as a member of parliament for Mt Pleasant Constituency under the CCC banner.
You chose me to represent you on a platform of values which are no longer at the heart of the CCC. I cannot remain a representative of a party whose leadership is unknown to me and whose motives and values remain opaque. I would be failing you if I held onto a position that will no longer serve the best interests of our community.
The CCC that I joined is not the CCC that we have left today. I cannot in good conscience be aligned to individuals who have caused unimaginable harm to the people by aligning themselves with a corrupt dictatorship.
I also cannot partner with persons who are willing to undo the will of the people and hand over seats that citizens stood in line for hours to vote for just to score cheap political points. This is not who I am or who I aspire to be.
The struggle for a democratic society should never be sacrificed at the altar of expediency. I remain committed to the cause of a better Zimbabwe. This is not an end but merely a line in the sand.
As always, I will remain a champion of the numerous causes important to our diverse community. I remain at your disposal, as we collectively navigate this uncertain phase ahead of us. Together, we will win Zimbabwe for change.
To give legal effect to this decision, I will tender my formal resignation notice to the Speaker of Parliament in line with section 129(1)(b) of the Constitution early next week when Parliament re-opens.
