Khupe recalls more MPs from Parliament

Harare (New Ziana) – Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda on Tuesday announced the expulsion of nine Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party lawmakers from the National Assembly.

The expelled members include Amos Chibaya of Mkoba constituency, Murisi Zwizwai of Harare Central and Happymore Chidziva of Highfield West.

Others are proportional representatives Basilia Majaya, Virginia Muradzikwa, Macharairwa Mugidho, Annah Myambo, Fransisca Dube and Nomatemba Ndlovu.

The nine were recalled after their party wrote to the Speaker informing him that they no-longer served the interests of the MDC-T.

Advocate Mudenda said the recall was in line with Section 129 (1A) of the constitution which states that a Parliamentary seat becomes vacant if an MP ceases to be a member of the party he or she belonged to when they were elected.

“I do hereby inform the house (parliament) that vacancies have arisen in the constituencies stated above by operation of the law. The necessary administrative steps will be taken to inform His Excellency the President, Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of the existence of the vacancies,” he said.

The latest recall brings to 13 the number of legislators removed from the legislature after the Supreme Court confirmed Thokozani Khupe as the legitimate leader of the MDC-T which had been illegally taken over by Nelson Chamisa following the death of its founding president Morgan Tsvangirai in 2018.

The court ordered the MDC-T to revert to its leadership elected at its last congress in 2014.

At that congress, Chamisa was elected party secretary for policy coordination, a position he held until he was illegally appointed one of three party vice presidents by Tsvangirai shortly before he died.

The appointment to the vice-presidency, made simultaneously with that of Elias Mudzuri, was also quashed by the courts.

The Supreme Court ruling, instigated by Chamisa himself, effectively handed control of the MDC-T back to Thokozani Khupe, the third and only party vice president to have been elected at the 2014 congress.

She was outmanoeuvred by Chamisa for the party presidency after Tsvangirai’s death, and the two subsequently broke ranks – Khupe retaining one faction of the MDC-T, and Chamisa taking the other to form MDC Alliance with other earlier MDC-T prodigal sons Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube.

But the Supreme Court ruling swung the power pendulum back in Khupe’s favour, who gleefully embraced it and promised a root and branch leadership cull, and party reforms.
New Ziana