Expulsion above board: Mudenda

via Expulsion above board: Mudenda | The Herald March 31, 2015

Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda has said the expulsion of former Zanu-PF MP for Headlands Didymus Mutasa and his nephew former Hurungwe West legislator Temba Mliswa from Parliament was above board as proper procedures were followed.

“The procedures, which I followed were in accordance with the law and the Constitution of the land and cannot be found wanting,” said Adv Mudenda while responding to the duo’s constitutional application challenging their expulsion from Parliament.

Adv Mudenda, who is being represented by Messrs Chihambakwe, Mutizwa and Partners, denied ever violating the duo’s fundamental rights.

Messrs Mutasa and Mliswa are also seeking to set aside the by-elections in the two constituencies until the determination of their case.

The two were expelled from the august House after Zanu-PF advised the Speaker that they were no longer members of the party.

President Mugabe has since fixed June 10 as the date for polls in Headlands and Hurungwe West after receiving notices from Parliament of vacancies in the two seats.

In his papers submitted to the Constitutional Court last week, Adv Mudenda confirmed that the Zanu-PF 6th National People’s Congress held last December was legitimate and the resolutions passed at the congress were above board and binding on party members.

“The meetings of the Politburo were properly convened and constituted and all the decisions made at these meetings were properly made and are binding on Zanu-PF members,” stated Adv Mudenda.

At all the material times, said Adv Mudenda, Mutasa was the party’s secretary for Administration, who was the driving force for convening the congress and the Politburo meetings and compiling the agenda.

“He left for South Africa after excusing himself to attend to his sick wife, a few days before the congress and the preparatory Politburo meetings but having made sure that everything was in motion,” said Adv Mudenda.

“The congress and the Politburo meetings to prepare for the congress were convened under his signature.”

Further, Adv Mudenda questioned, why Mutasa did not take the appropriate action(s) to interdict the alleged illegal congress and Politburo meetings as well as the disciplinary hearing if he was concerned, as he claimed in his papers.

Adv Mudenda also said the expulsion from Parliament of the two did not bar them from contesting the by-elections as independent candidates.

He added that the exercise was intended to give the voters of Headlands and Hurungwe West constituencies an opportunity to express their wish in the changed circumstances.

“In any event it is not the function of the Speaker of the National Assembly to delve into the internal operations of a political party, suffice to say that once I receive a letter from a political party, as I did , I put the law into motion,” said Adv Mudenda.

President Mugabe, who has since responded to the application, through his lawyer Mr Terence Hussein of Hussein and Ranchhod, insists that he acted within the confines of the law when he fixed the dates for by-elections in the two constituencies.

He said the relief sought by Messrs Mutasa and Mliswa was overtaken by events since he had acted in terms of the Constitution and published the proclamation calling for the by-elections in the two constituencies.

The President further argued that his involvement in the matter ended with calling for by-elections upon receiving advice of vacancies from the Speaker of the National Assembly in terms of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.