From court case’s disqualification to the nullification of the case whether be the Supreme court, CCC makes way to the parliament.
This is the short summary of the 12 candidates of the Citizens Coalition of Change (CCC) who are well known as the 12 disciples of CCC.
The Bulawayo Metropolitan had 12 parliament seats in the past and all seats have been won by the MDC. This year the newly formed Triple C party has won the 12 seats replacing the MDC party.
Therefore, before the 12 CCC party candidates were voted in office by Bulawayo voters they faced a number of challenges which include the claims that were made by the 12 voters who presented a case at High Court to disqualify the 12 CCC Bulawayo candidates.
The 12 Bulawayo voters claimed that the 12 CCC Bulawayo candidates submitted their nomination papers past the deadline time of submitting hence the Bulawayo High court made a ruling in favour to the 12 voters.
The CCC party presented their case to the Supreme court in Harare seeking the nullification of the High Court’s decision. The High Courts’ decision was nullified by the Supreme court allowing the 12 to contest for the 12 seats in Bulawayo.
After the nullification that was made by the Supreme court all eyes and ears were on the CCC Candidates as they faced more challenges.
In a newly established constituency, Cowdray Park, they elected CCC member Raphael Sibanda who was contesting against the outgoing Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube and this shocked the country as he defeated the Minister of Finance.
Minister Ncube had been campaigning in the newly established constituency by building new road infrastructures and the main ZANU PF Bulawayo Presidential rally was held in Cowdray Park constituency. However, all odds were in favour of Raphael Sibanda a former Zimbabwe National Student Union.
Another Bulawayo constituency which everyone was curious to know the results was the battle of Bulawayo South. With two outgoing members of Parliament contesting for the same seat which are:
Outgoing Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, Raj Modi and Bulawayo East MP Nicola Watson. Therefore, Raji Modi became the first ZANU-PF to win a Parliamentarian seat in Bulawayo due to the double candidacy that was made by then the main opposition MDC Alliance.
Because of the delimitation report, the Bulawayo South constituency was expanded as it was joined by other constituencies such as Makokoba. Hence in the 2023 August elections, Minister Raji Modi was defeated by Hon elect Nicola Watson for the Bulawayo South seat.
Nicola Watson a CCC party member was running under the party manifesto, ‘For Everyone.’
She had informed My Afrika Mag during her campaigning that among her goals one of them is to fight for the rights of pensioners whom ironically consist the majority of population in her ward.
The CCC was facing double candidacy nomination in areas such as Pelandaba -Tshabalala, Pumula, Entumbane Njube Constituency and in several council wards. However, the party’s former spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere used to reiterate to the media whom their selected party members are:
Gift Ostallos Siziba (Pelandaba Tshabalala), whom most of his support came from the young residents of the constitutiency.
Entumbane Njube constituency the CCC candidate, Prince Dube was battle against other 3 candidates including the outgoing Member of Parliament from the same constituency Tshuma.
In Pumula there was another double candidacy however the main candidate won the seat.
The 12 CCC candidates who won seats in the Bulawayo Province and their constituencies are:
Bulawayo Central – Kapoikilu Surrender
Bulawayo North-Gumede Minenhle Ntandoyenkosi
Bulawayo South-Watson Nicola Jane.
Cowdray Park -Sibanda Pashor Raphael.
Emakhandeni Luveve-Bajila Collins Discent.
Entumbane Njube-Dube Prince
Lobengula/Magwegwe-Gono Ereck
Mpopoma/Mzilikazi-Makaza Desmond
Nketa-Manduna Obert
Nkulumane -Moyo Desire
Pelandaba/Tshabalala- Siziba Gift Ostallos
Pumula -Mahlangu Sichelesile