Source: Chamisa ‘drowns’ Khupe – DailyNews Live
Blessings Mashaya and Tendai Kamhungira 13 April 2018
HARARE – Long-serving MDC vice president Thokozani Khupe’s association
with the party is effectively and officially over, after she was recalled
from Parliament yesterday.
Khupe and two other former top MDC officials, national spokesperson Obert
Gutu and organising secretary Abednigo Bhebhe, were also fired from the
party last month – as the political movement’s bigwigs squabbled over
power after its popular leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, passed away in
February.
Before that, Khupe – who stood accused of playing truant – had been given
an extended deadline to end her wrangle with new party president Nelson
Chamisa, whom she refused to accept as the bona fide successor to
Tsvangirai.
The firing of Khupe, Gutu and Bhebhe from the party also followed the
surprising resignation of former chairperson Lovemore Moyo over the
leadership quarrels.
Acting Speaker of the National Assembly Ruben Marumahoko announced
yesterday that the MDC had recalled Khupe from Parliament, where she had
almost become a permanent fixture since the party was formed nearly two
decades ago.
Citing section 129 (1) (k) of the national Constitution, Marumahoko said
all that was needed for him to declare a seat vacant was notification from
the concerned party.
“She ceased to be a member of MDC and therefore she no longer represents
the interests of the party,” he said.
Section 129 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe says: “A 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 the
President of the Senate, as the case may be, has declared that the member
has ceased to belong to it”.
Marumahoko said that administrative processes regarding the notification
of the vacancy to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (Zec) would be executed soon.
Chamisa has also, meanwhile, received a ringing endorsement from the MDC
Alliance which has said he will be its sole presidential candidate, and
will thus square off against Mnangagwa in this year’s presidential
elections which are due in less than four months’ time.
The watershed polls will be the first in the past two decades not to
feature 94-year-old former president Robert Mugabe and the late
Tsvangirai.
The MDC is in an alliance which includes Tendai Biti’s People’s Democratic
Party (PDP), Welshman Ncube’s MDC, Jacob Ngarivhume’s Transform Zimbabwe,
Zanu Ndonga headed by Denford Masiyarira, and the Multi-Racial Christian
Democrats which is led by Mathias Guchutu.
In the meantime, the battle between Chamisa and Khupe has also spilled
into the High Court, where the two are clashing over the ownership of the
party’s name and symbols.
In an application filed before the Bulawayo High Court, the MDC led by
Chamisa is the applicant – while Khupe, Gutu and Bhebhe are cited as
respondents.
Chamisa is arguing that he is the legitimate leader of the MDC and is
accusing Khupe and company of infringing on the MDC trademark. He also
says Khupe, Gutu and Bhebhe were sacked from the party and thus have no
authority to claim ownership of the party.
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