Sengezo Tshabangu is set to receive the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party’s share of Government funds allocated under the Political Parties (Finance) Act.
This comes after Tshabangu appointed himself as the leader of the opposition in Parliament last week.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said disbursement of the funds will be made “soon”. He said:
There were delays (in disbursing the funds) because the Minister of Finance (Economic Development and Investment Promotion, Professor Mthuli Ncube) was not available.
Once the processes have been completed, we will disburse the funds soon.
The recipient of the funds was determined (in Parliament) and it is the opposition (faction) with the majority of members in Parliament.
Political parties that receive at least 5 per cent of the total votes cast in the general election qualify for State funding.
This means that only ZANU PF and CCC qualify to receive a share of the funding in terms of the Political Parties (Finance) Act.
Each party’s share is proportional to the number of National Assembly seats they secured in the previous election.
Constitutional law expert Professor Lovemore Madhuku told The Sunday Mail that the funds should be disbursed every financial year over five years.
The Political Parties (Finance) Act states that every political party shall be entitled to receive from the State funding payable to it in terms of the Act annually. It reads:
The minister shall, as soon as is practicable, and in any case no later than 30 days after the beginning of the financial year, publish, with the approval of the minister responsible for finance, a notice in the Gazette specifying the total amount of money appropriated for all political parties and the amount that shall be paid to each individual political party in terms of this Act.
Each political party whose candidates received at least 5 per centum of the total number of votes cast in the most recent general election shall be entitled to the same proportion of the total moneys appropriated as the total number of votes cast for its candidates in the election bears to the total number of votes cast for all its candidates in that election.
Meanwhile, CCC’s founding leader Nelson Chamisa quit the party in January this year citing infiltration by ZANU PF after State institutions recognised Tshabangu as the party’s “Interim Secretary General”.
Since the August 2023 harmonized elections, the Parliament of Zimbabwe has refused to entertain anyone else when dealing with the opposition except Tshabangu.
Tshabangu, an obscure opposition activist, wrote to Parliament and the Ministry of Local Government in October 2023, recalling several CCC MPs and Councillors.
Surprisingly, both Parliament and the Minister acted upon Tshabangu’s letters, even though he had neither held a CCC office nor been a candidate in the 2023 general elections.
Subsequently, Tshabangu recalled dozens of additional CCC councillors and MPs, with the courts endorsing his actions, effectively establishing him as the de facto leader of the opposition party.
This week, Tshabangu changed the party’s leadership in Parliament and also appointed himself Leader of The Opposition.
This came after Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda rescinded appointments of CCC legislators to various parliamentary committees in February this year by Jameson Timba, who leads another CCC faction, saying he had no right to do so.
