High Court reserves judgement in CCC recall case

Harare (New Ziana) – High Court Judge, Justice Munamato Mutevedzi on Thursday reserved judgement in a high-stakes case in which 15 Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party parliamentarians and nine senators are challenging their recalls by party interim secretary general, Sengezo Tshabangu.

Justice Mutevedzi said he will issue judgement in the case before November 7, which President Emmerson Mnangagwa has proclaimed as the nomination date for by-elections set to be held next month to replace the recalled legislators.

In their court case, the MPs are challenging the legal validity of their recall from parliament on grounds that Tshabangu allegedly did not have powers to withdraw them.

They are also disputing his claim to the position of the party’s interim secretary general, which some CCC officials have said did not exist.

Some of the affected constituencies are Beitbridge West, Binga North, Bulawayo South, Cowdray Park, Lobengula-Magwegwe, Lupane East, Mabvuku-Tafara, Mpopoma-Mzilikazi and Nketa where Morgan Ncube, Prince Dubeko Sibanda, Nicola Jane Watson, Pashor Raphael Sibanda, Ereck Gono, Bright Moyo Vanya, Febion Munyaradzi Kufahakutizwi, Desmond Makaza and Obert Manduna were respectively the legislators.

Addressing the media and members of the CCC that turned up at the court in solidarity with the recalled MPs and senators under the watchful eye of police, party representative, Gift Ostalos Siziba said the CCC was different from other political outfits with “a communist infrastructure” and did not have the position of secretary general as claimed by Tshabangu.

He said Tshabangu had failed to prove that the affected MPs were no longer members of CCC, and whether he had the power to recall them as he claimed.

Siziba expressed hope that the CCC court action will succeed, optimism shared by the party’s lawyer, Sinhle Amanda Ndlovu.

The MPs and senators were recalled after both the lower and upper houses sanctioned the recalls following a letter from Tshabangu notifying parliament of the party’s recall of the MPs and senators that had ceased to be members of the opposition outfit.

Tshabangu said the MPs had been fraudulently foisted on the party’s election ticket in the primary selection process ahead of the general election in August and their recall was meant to restore true democracy in the CCC, and justice to its electorate.

He said the party was in the middle of self-cleansing after a pre-election selection process for candidates which was riddled with brazen corruption, resulting in the disenfranchisement of the electorate. The recall of the 15 lower house legislators, and nine from the senate, marked the beginning of the self-cleansing process.

“The nomination process for the 2023 harmonised general election was turned into a circus as party officials ran roughshod over the will of the people. In some cases, candidates nominated by citizens were disqualified by dubious vetoes that had no legitimate basis at all, besides the pursuit of nefarious personal agendas,” Tshabangu said.

“In Bulawayo, for example, total strangers from other parts of the country were imported to replace local candidates selected by the local community. In a nutshell, our internal electoral processes became a corrupt and blashphemous insult and brazen act of disenfranchisement.

“It is against this background of a rigged internal electoral process that I, as a bone fide secretary general, after nationwide consultation with the citizenry and our structures as they existed in January 2022, as they still are, decided to bite the bullet to stand up for justice and truth and to recall those MPs who are a product of a fraudulent and corrupt internal electoral process that is inconsistent with and contrary to our constitutional ethos and founding as a political party,” he said.

“It is unacceptable that we present ourselves to the Zimbabwean body politic and the outside world as doyens of democracy while practicing naked fascism in pursuit of personal ambitions. The recalls are redemptive, as they seek to reaffirm and entrench a democratic culture where dystopia had developed and was gathering alarming momentum. As a political party based on constitutionalism, we must walk the talk if we are to institutionalise constitutional democracy in our beautiful motherland, Zimbabwe.”

New Ziana