Africa Press-Nigeria:
FOUR Members of Parliament from the MDC Alliance have been recalled from parliament after their party said they had ceased to represent their interests in the August House.
This was announced by Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda when Parliament resumed sitting this Tuesday.
“On the 3rd April 2020, Parliament was notified by the Movement for Democratic Change Tsvangirayi Party (MDC-T) that Honourable Charlton Hwende (Kuwadzana East), Thabitha Khumalo (Proportional Representation) and Honourable Mr Prosper Mutseyami (Dangamvura-Chikanga) have ceased to the members of MDC-T party and therefore, no longer represent the interest of the party in parliament,” said Advocate Mudenda.
Senator Lillian Timveous (Midlands) was also recalled.
Advocate Mudenda went on to explain the development in relation to the constitution of the country.
“Constitution of Zimbabwe provides that, the seat of a member of parliament becomes vacant if the member has ceased to belong to the political party of which he or she was a member when elected to parliament and the political party concerned, by written notice to the Speaker or to the President of the Senate as the case may be, has declared that the member has ceased to belong to it.
Pursuant to the above, I do hereby inform the house that vacancies have arisen in the constituencies stated above by the operation of the law. The necessary administrative measures will be taken to inform His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of the existence of the vacancies in line with Section 39(1) of the Electoral Act [ Chapter 213] as amended,” he said.
The legislators were elected under the banner of the MDC Alliance, a coalition of opposition parties that contested the 2018 harmonised elections. They were seconded to the Alliance by the MDC-T which has recalled them from Parliament.
Contacted for comment after developments in Parliament, MDC-T Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora said the members have been recalled as they ceased to be members of the party.
“We have recalled four members of parliament of which three are from the National Assembly, and one from the senate. The main reason why we recalled them is they ceased to be members of our party by their own declaration. As you know our party is MDC T left by Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC T which was a member of MDC Alliance. We went into the election as members of MDC T who are in the alliance which was an election pact. Through their declaration the Honourables advised the country that they were now members of the MDC Alliance party, the MDC-A party at law is different from MDC-A of which our party was a member,” explained Mwonzora.
Mwonzora also noted that the quartet was promoting disunity within the party hence the decision to fire them for the good of the political outfit.
“In terms of clause 5(10)(a) constitution of MDC T, once you start belonging to another political party, you automatically cease to be a member of our party and if you cease to be our member you cease holding our seat.
The second problem is they had been acting in a manner which was disuniting the party, Hwende, tried to recall the leaders who had been confirmed by the Supreme Court pending the holding of extraordinary congress that is myself, Komichi and Mudzuri so their actions were toxic they were writing a lot on social media, disuniting the party, we are a party of rules, which follows constitution, which follows court judgement, for that reason we have relieved them of their duties,” he said.
