Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere has refuted a WhatsApp chat that had been attributed to her and an unnamed party official by pro-ZANU PF social media personalities.
Mahere said she did not write the WhatsApp message, and blamed ZANU PF activists for creating and propagating the message. Said Mahere:
A fake WhatsApp message purporting to have been authored by me is circulating. Please note that this is Zanu PF propaganda in overdrive yet again. Disregard it. No amount of fake news and disinformation will stop political change whose time has come.
The WhatsApp chat went viral after the Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet George Charamba posted a screenshot of the purported chat on Twitter.
Charamba captioned the screenshot with the words: “Job Sikhala thrown under the bus. We saw this long back and they are now confirming it themselves. They are provoked into sounding themselves out and they later leak the chats. Zvino muchatii nazvo?“
In a screenshot of the purported chat shared by Charamba, an unknown CCC member told Mahere that the party needed to do more for jailed party vice chairman Job Sikhala. Said the official:
I think we need to do more for Hon Job Sikhala as a movement. Please find a way of convincing President Chamisa to do more demos to raise awareness about his case.
His incarceration is good for us as a party because hatina mamwe ma programs atirikuita. Vanhu vakutya kuita active vachitya kuzoraswa vava mutirongo.
Remember he committed that crime ari on Party duty. that’s my 2 cents please and that view is shared by many here in the UK.
Mahere then purportedly responded saying Sikhala has been abandoned by the party because he is now working on his own project. It reads:
Thank you for your concern but of late, that is no longer the position in the movement. Hon Sikhala has been working with Freddy Masarirevhu the so-called personal lawyer and family friend to undermine our efforts and those of President Chamisa.
The President once warned him publicly about his violent tendencies but as you know, his ambitions to lead the opposition with Tendai got the better of him.
All we can offer is solidarity and I have been consistent in doing so. However, our intelligence informed us he is now working on his own project from prison.
That is why he is falsely accusing us of wanting to poison him. As the Spokesperson of the movement, I feel I have done my part and will continue to do so for the sake of the public but truth be told, he has chosen separate ways.
Sikhala was arrested together with more than a dozen other activists for allegedly inciting violence in Nyatsime in June 2022 following the murder of party member Moreblessing Ali.
The other CCC activists have since been granted bail by the courts.
