Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. High Court judge, Justice Pasirayi Kwenda has dismissed with costs a bid by recalled MPs to be reinstated in Parliament.
Former MPs Charlton Hwende, Prosper Mutseyami, Thabitha Khumalo, and Senator Lilian Timveos, now a Zanu PF member, had sought an order that sets aside their recall by the MDC-T.
The four had argued that the Speaker of Parliament and the President of the Senate blundered in removing them as lawmakers on the basis of a letter written by Douglas Mwonzora who was Secretary-General of MDC-T then.
Following a March 30, 2020, Supreme Court judgment that said Nelson Chamisa had illegally succeeded founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai, MDC-T has recalled dozens of MDC Alliance councillors and legislators arguing that they had ceased to be members of the party that gave them the ticket into elections.
The court declared Thokozani Khupe, who contested the 2018 polls as MDC-T leader, the rightful heir, prompting a sustained recall spree targeting MDC Alliance legislators who stuck with Chamisa.
The purge continued even after Khuphe was toppled by Mwonzora.
The four lawmakers had maintained in their application that they ran and won the July 2018 elections on an MDC Alliance ticket and could not, therefore, be said to be members of the MDC-T, whose members they beat in the polls.
On the other hand, MDC-T says it is the party that joined the 7-party alliance in 2017, therefore, had a right to recall councillors or MPs who were claiming to be members of another party.
Some observers, however, accuse MDC-T of being used by the ruling ZANU PF to destabilise the opposition.
More: Pindula News; ZimLive
