Bhebhe elated with Parly comeback

via Bhebhe elated with Parly comeback – DailyNews Live by Chengetai Zvauya   6 OCTOBER 2013

Abednico Bhebhe, the MDC MP for Nkayi South is a happy man following his re-election as a legislator, after four years in political wilderness.

In 2009 Welshman Ncube, President of the smaller MDC officially expelled three MPs, Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South) Njabuliso Mguni (Bulilima East) and Norman Mpofu (Lupane East) after they came out in support of Morgan Tsvangirai.

Under the current constitution, if an MP is expelled from the party, he loses his or her parliamentary seat.

Efforts to seek relief from the Supreme Court and demands that President Robert Mugabe holds by-elections to enable them to continue representing their constituencies which had no parliamentary representative all but failed. Mugabe sought indulgence of the courts arguing that the country had no money to hold by-elections as it was preparing for harmonised elections.

In an interview with the Daily News on Sunday recently, Bhebhe expressed his happiness at having finally won his political battles with the Ncube-led MDC, whom he accused of victimising him.

Mguni and Mpofu were unable to make the same come back after being defeated in the harmonised elections.

“My problem with Ncube started when he ordered us to vote for the Zanu PF speaker in Parliament.

The party had reached an agreement with Zanu PF that we had to support Paul Temba Nyathi against the former Speaker Lovemore Moyo. I stood up and objected to that as I told him that we had to go to our various constituencies to consult,” said Bhebhe.

“This did not go down well with Ncube who started victimising me as I had suggested that we had to work with the MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai, ” he said.

Bhebhe said he was automatically expelled from Parliament as Ncube informed the August House that he was no longer their parliamentary representative.

“I had been working with the people in my constituency who told me that they were going to be voting for me in future elections and it came as no surprise when I won the 31 July elections for Nkayi South,” he said.

Bhebhe added: “I am now one of the longest serving MPs of MDC as I was in Parliament since 2000. The four years of expulsion from 2009 to 2013 was one of the lowest points in my political career as it left the people of Nkayi without parliamentary representative,” said Bhebhe.

“Zanu PF tried to penetrate the constituency as politburo member Obert Mpofu spent four years campaigning in the constituency for their candidate, Stars Mathe but they did not achieve anything because they were being supported by Welshman Ncube in their campaigns,” he said.