via Mudenda scoffs at MDC Renewal Team’s court challenge – NewsDay Zimbabwe April 14, 2015 by Charles Laiton
Speaker of the House of Assembly Jacob Mudenda has scoffed at the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) application, filed by the 16 expelled former MDC-T legislators, seeking to challenge their ouster from the House, saying the application was devoid of merit and should be dismissed with costs on a higher scale.
The application is set to be heard today at the ConCourt.
Responding to the ex-MPs’ application, Mudenda said at all material times, the former MDC-T MPs “knew, or must have known, or should have known, or ought to have known” that the natural and probable consequences of them receiving the letter(s) of expulsion from a political party was to be followed by the concerned members’ recall from Parliament.
“All these important events have already taken place and what is now left for the applicants is simply to accept his/her fate, because, to use the language of a rancher, the horse has already bolted out of the pen, and to use Shakespearean language, it is a high-sounding application, but signifying nothing or, to use biblical language, this application is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell which will not produce the desired results,” Mudenda said.
The Speaker also castigated former Kambuzuma MP Willias Madzimure for wasting his time consulting the party’s secretary-general and ex-Harare East MP Tendai Biti on their expulsion rather than taking the matter to court.
“On or about the 4th day of March the first applicant (Willias Madzimure) received a letter from MDC-T expelling him from the party and instead of rushing to court to protect his or their alleged fundamental rights, he or they went to Tendai Biti,” Mudenda said.
“The first applicant/applicants did nothing to interdict the announcement, let alone the publication of the Government Gazette, perhaps being content on discussing the matter with Tendai Biti.
“On or about March 6, I received a letter from the secretary-general of the MDC-T recalling the applicants from Parliament, around or about the same time the local news media was awash with the news that I was to make an announcement on the fate of the applicants vis-à-vis their seats in the National Assembly, again instead of rushing to court to protect his alleged fundamental rights, the first applicant went to see Biti.”
Mudenda said he procedurally gave notice to President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) chairperson Justice Rita
Makarau and Zec about the notification from the MDC-T and the existence of vacant parliamentary seats.
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