Former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Bulawayo provincial chairwoman Tendai Luba Masotsha has defected to ZANU PF.
Masotsha, a vocal opposition activist in the MDC, MDC Alliance and later CCC and a critic of the ruling party, announced her move on Tuesday when she was welcomed at ZANU PF headquarters in Harare.
She described it as a “conscious, patriotic” decision influenced by development under President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“Today, I stand before you to say I have quit opposition politics,” she said. “I have made a conscious, patriotic decision to cross over from the opposition to the ruling party, ZANU PF, under the leadership of President Mnangagwa.”
Masotsha said she had become uncomfortable with what she called a cycle of opposition promises that never delivered tangible improvements.
“We promised change was coming tomorrow, next year, in the next election — change, change, change, change,” she said. “Yet deep down, we knew nothing was coming anytime soon.”
She said the consequences had been painful because some supporters had died while waiting.
“What pains me most is that some of the people we made those promises to have died while waiting. They died suffering, holding on to our empty promises,” she said.
She said she began to question whether opposing for its own sake was helping ordinary Zimbabweans.
“I began to ask myself: are we not becoming victims of the continued suffering of our own people by opposing for the sake of opposing?” she said.
Masotsha said she wanted to influence development from inside government rather than criticise from outside.
“I can carry the voice of the voiceless from inside, where development is planned and mandated,” she said. “I want to save my province, Bulawayo. I want to save my region.”
“I’m not joining ZANU PF as a silent member. I’m joining to work, to build, to be a bridge for all those who believe in me, in the opposition, to bring their concerns to where solutions are made,” she added. “Zimbabwe needs builders now, not just critics.”
She was welcomed by ZANU PF Political Commissar Munyaradzi Machacha and members of the Women’s League led by its Secretary for Finance, Tsitsi Mugabe.
Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono said ZANU PF had called her a returnee.
“ZANU PF called her a returnee. Tendai Luba Masotsha said she had simply come back home,” he wrote on X.
“This is the same woman who was once an opposition leader in Bulawayo, accused of selling out activists, some of whom were later tortured by state security agents.
“She was allegedly behind the abduction of Tawanda Muchehiwa. Through it all, opposition leaders stood by her and defended her. Today, the mask is off. She is officially ZANU PF, and she announced it with gusto and a smirk.”
Muchehiwa, then a 22-year-old Midlands State University student and nephew of ZimLive editor Mduduzi Mathuthu, was abducted in June 2020 by armed men in unmarked vehicles in an operation believed to have been targeting his uncle ahead of anti-corruption protests.
He was held incommunicado for two days and was released after his lawyer, Nqobani Sithole, filed a habeas corpus application in the High Court.
Muchehiwa suffered severe assault, including being stamped on and forced to drink urine, acute renal failure with a grade 1 injury to his left kidney, severe tissue damage to his buttocks and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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