Parly Stands by Fresh CCC recalls

Tuesday’s recall of Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) legislators from parliament stands inspite of a temporary High Court interdict, lower house speaker, Jacob Mudenda, ruled on Wednesday.

He said this was on grounds that the notice of the recalls, by controversial party interim secretary general Sengeso Tshabangu, had been made earlier than the court interdict, and therefore became effective on the date it was written.

Thirteen CCC legislators were recalled from the lower house, and five from the senate on Tuesday, the latest in a series of expulsions of MPs and local government representatives from the party. Separately on the day, the High Court interdicted parliament from effecting further recalls pending the outcome of a case in which the CCC is challenging the legal authority of Tshabangu of making such requests to both houses of the legislature.

But Mudenda said the lower house of parliament received Tshabangu’s notice of the latest recalls on November 7, and this took immediate effect, and therefore cannot be superseded by Tuesday’s High Court interdict. The CCC, which is engulfed in a power struggle between Tshabangu and party leader Nelso Chamisa, had sought to use the interdict to torpedo the latest recalls.

“I rule that the notice (of recall) read yesterday (Tuesday) stands and those members affected; can they kindly leave the chamber. The notice of recall is effective from the date of the letter (from Tshabangu), which is the 7th of November,” Mudenda ruled on Wednesday.

“The court made an interim relief, and the relief was made after I had made the announcement,” he said, to the chagrin of CCC legislators who had thought they had found an escape route from Tshabangu’s wrath in the High Court interdict.

Tuesday’s recall of CCC elected representatives is the third batch made by Tshabangu, who claims he is weeding out impostors foisted on the party’s ticket in the general elections in August.

Already, by-elections have been called for next month to fill vacancies in both houses of parliament and local councils created by earlier recalls.

New Ziana