Temba Mliswa has criticised former Mt Pleasant MP Fadzayi Mahere for raising key national issues on social media, particularly X, instead of addressing them in the National Assembly, where she was elected in 2023 but resigned a few months later.
Mahere stepped down from Parliament in January 2024, telling her supporters that she could not be associated with individuals aligned “with a corrupt dictatorship.”
She said she could not continue representing a party whose leadership was unknown to her and whose motives and values were opaque, following Sengezo Tshabangu’s takeover of the CCC with the backing of State institutions.
In a post on X, Mliswa argued that Mahere’s politics now amount to little more than playing to the public gallery, relying on populist applause while showing little concern for delivering tangible results. He wrote:
“You betrayed the support of those who sacrificed much for your candidature and dumped your constituency in a petulant manner. Those are the leaders we don’t want: weak and undependable.
“You get elected and then resign; Why? Because your leader, due to his own deficiencies, has decided to jump ship? How weak can any leader be more than that?
“Now you waste your brilliance on a platform where you jostle for attention with anyone who has a smartphone.”
Mliswa argued that Mahere’s politics has lost its focus, now centred solely on attacking anything and everything that will win her social media approval, without producing any tangible results that a Parliamentary seat could have delivered.
He added that Mahere’s criticisms of figures such as President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ally Wicknell Chivayo are not grounded in the legality of their actions, but appear to be based purely on personal preferences. Added Mliswa:
“It would make much more impact, if there is any to be made, if it were about criminal accusations with evidentiary support. We could then explain that it’s activism.
“As it is, each politician and civilian has their preferred way of doing things, and you can’t seek to have them kowtow to your preferred methods!
“While you have made ‘we need new Leaders’ your working mantra, it is acutely ironic how your own actions reflect the very type of leaders which the electorate should shun because while they stood with you, you refused to reciprocate and stand with them, handing the seat to ZANU PF.”
Mliswa said that Mahere, having won the Mt Pleasant seat by over 12,000 votes, betrayed her constituents by resigning, particularly as the ZANU PF candidate, George Mashavave, went on to win the by-election by just 3,000 votes. He said:
“Thus, your frenetic hunt for issues and individuals to attack is both misguided and misplaced, especially for someone who dumped the correct platform to advance the national cause and chose histrionics on social media.
“As an indefatigable someone, you can defend yourself or even attack, but the reality and truth is that you betrayed those who voted you in and dumped them at the feet of a party which they had refused at first.”
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