Opposition leader in Zimbabwe leaves ‘contaminated’ party

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Nelson Chamisa has quit, saying his party has been taken over by the government and it’s not good anymore.

“I don’t want to be involved in dirty politics,” he said in a statement that was 13 pages long on Thursday.

He got 44% of the votes in the presidential election last year. Some people said there was cheating.

However, some members of his party, CCC, lost their jobs because of sabotage, according to Mr.

Mr Chamisa, a 45-year-old, is a Christian pastor and lawyer. He is going to start a new political party.

It’s not certain how many of the CCC’s MPs and councillors will go with him.

Although he has a lot of support, especially in cities, some people who don’t like Mr Chamisa say he is not a good leader and this has caused problems in the opposition. This has made it easier for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to stay in control.

In his letter, he said the CCC had been “hurt”, accusing the ruling Zanu-PF party of being responsible – allegations it denied.

“He said that the original CCC idea has been changed and taken over by ZANU PF using government institutions in a bad way. ”

In the statement, the old leader of CCC said it was President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s fault for many problems in Zimbabwe, like bad hospitals, cholera and social services breaking down.

He said that many people in his group were paid to work against it.

In reference to President Mnangagwa’s nickname, Mr. Chamisa said he didn’t want to take any risks.

In 2017, President Mnangagwa took over as the leader after a peaceful takeover that removed Robert Mugabe, who had been in power for a long time.

He was seen as a symbol of hope and change for the struggling country.

However, there are still a lot of problems in Zimbabwe, such as high prices, not enough jobs, and limits on freedom of speech.

Mr Chamisa has been involved in opposing politics for more than twenty years.

He says that he has been in danger and had to escape an attempt on his life in 2022 when his group was attacked during an election. He was hurt badly in 2007 when the government tried to stop the opposition. His skull was cracked.

Before, he was in charge of a different group called the MDC. He left that group because there was a fight for control. Then, in 2022, he started his own group called the CCC.