By Elizabeth Sitotombe
DESPITE the opposition CCC claiming to be a party in pursuit of democracy, evidence on the ground point to the contrary.
The ideologically bankrupt party has all but given new meaning to the word ‘democracy’.
CCC leader Nelson Chamisa has taken his eccentric behaviour and bullish tendencies up a notch.
This time, his target is the students’ body, ZINASU.
He has cracked the whip on students who do not share his views and has made it known they should be eliminated.
The student body leaders have been failing to organise students to cause anarchy and despondency and are fast-running out of time.
At the same time, the US Embassy unveiled funds to the students’ wing ZINASU following other funds availed to the opposition movement to cause chaos during elections.
There is jostling and tussling for positions as members try to position themselves in strategic areas to access the cash.
This has resulted in infighting within ZINASU, where fights have cascaded from the national to provincial level and institutions.
At national level, ZINASU national president Benon Ncube was accused of undermining the authority of Gift Ostallos Siziba and Fadzayi Mahere, Chamisa’s faithful sidekicks.
They were trying to influence Ncube to lure other students to cause chaos and anarchy in the country but he was failing to get the job done.
He was eventually removed from the presidency when members accused him of being incompetent and thus gave him a vote of no confidence.
He has since been replaced by Borris Muguti, secretary for legal affairs for ZINASU.
Not long afterwards, University of Zimbabwe ZINASU president and Project Vote 263 chairperson Alan Chipoyi and his secretary Munashe Masiiwa were recently unceremoniously expelled from their positions of leadership.
The points raised for removing Chipoyi were that he was not convening general council meetings as required by their constitution.
He did not show up at SRC elections to support ZINASU candidates but took money for personal gain.
He failed to rein in the secretariat to fundraise money for Union programmes; furthermore, he has zero media presence while he also failed to give direction to the students.
But a source who spoke to this publication said the duo were accused of disobeying Chamisa and Mahere on many occasions by choosing to follow the guidance of Tendai Biti instead.
It is alleged the duo connived with Biti and collected funds from the legal division of the American Embassy saying they needed to represent poor students at the University who had failed to pay fees.
They are accused of spending the funds and making a dummy legal action against the UZ which did not succeed although they had squandered the funds.
Still remember Chipoyi?
He was a nonentity until an article by this publication exposed his role of youths being used by NGOs to mobilise other youths to register for the MDC Alliance.
Chipoyi would later claim that the article had cost him a ZIMDEF scholarship.
This, however proved a blessing in disguise as he garnered attention from many shadowy outfits — but most importantly from Nelson Chamisa.
Not too long after he was voted president of ZINASU, a position he failed to keep while trying to serve two masters at the same time.
ZINASU was formed by the US in 1986; six years after Zimbabwe attained its independence — one of Uncle Sam’s devilish plots to effect regime change by raising so-called student leaders and bodies alike.
Simply put, it is a regime change project camouflaged in student politics.
ZINASU has, over the past election years, mobilised students to participate as election observers and have already started to mobilise students to take part in the #DefendYourVote programme meant to cause friction and violence during this year’s elections.
In the 2002 presidential elections, ZINASU mobilised students to participate as election observers under the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a project funded by the US government through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
On the eve of the July 31 2013 harmonised elections, ZINASU labelled ZANU PF an enemy beyond conciliation.
Readers must also be reminded that ZINASU is one of the groups that took part in the so-called Working People’s Convention (WPC) that gave birth to the MDC on September 11 1999.
ZINASU ceremonially became a wing of the MDC and this resulted in the ascendency of some student leaders, like the late Learnmore Jongwe, Job Sikhala, Tafadzwa Musekiwa, Charlton Hwende and Nelson Chamisa, among others, into senior positions of the new party.
It meant that the MDC’s main wing dictated how the student body operated and engaged the establishment.
Still, despite being thrown to the dogs, Chipoyi, who answers to many other powers, is already working on other projects.
A drive free braai is being hosted on March 10 at a venue to be advised later for those who are registering to vote between this week and March 10.
In an advert posted by Chipoyi, would-be voters are advised to forward their voter registration slips to Allan Chipoyi on +263 773 994 618 and Takudzwa Ngadziore on +263 785 004 577.
What is the braai for and why the fuss?
Who is funding the braai and why?
People are to be encouraged to register to vote, not paid to register to vote.
People, like Chipoyi et al, have to realise by now that these tactics always fail dismally.
While President Mnangagwa encourages the youth to participate in nation building, someone else is trying to encourage them to do the opposite!