High Court judge Justice Pisirai Kwenda yesterday upheld MDC T’s decision to recall MDC Alliance MPs and said Khupe’s faction recalled MPs in accordance with the March 31 Supreme court ruling that declared her the legitimate MDC T leader, Newsday reports.
Part of Justice Kwenda’s ruling that upheld Khupe’s decision to recall the 12 MPs who had approached the courts seeking a redress reads:
As at the date of the Supreme Court judgment, it was common cause that the third respondent (MDC-T) contested the July 2018 harmonised elections under the unconstitutional leadership of Nelson Chamisa and became the main opposition party in Parliament, after garnering 88 out of 270 seats in the National Assembly and 25 out of 60 in the Senate
The applicants (eight expelled) are the Members of Parliament referred to. The corrective measures ordered by the Supreme Court mean that the same party is now led by the second respondent (Khupe) as its interim president with the specific mandate to convene an extra-ordinary congress in order to elect a new president
They are the members of Parliament in the judgment. In any event, as I have already stated above, a constitutional remedy is made in the public interest and is binding on the citizenry at large,
The applicants failed to adduce proof of termination of their membership of the third respondent. They also failed to adduce proof of the termination of the composite political cooperation agreement which constituted the non-compete coalition of seven political parties known as the MDC Alliance. The applicants were not the signatories to the MDC Alliance coalition. They had no capacity to terminate the coalition. They could also not quit the coalition in their individual capacities. They could only quit their party.
It is common cause before me that they ceased to be members and representatives of the third respondent due to irreconcilable differences that emerged after the handing down of the Supreme Court judgment on March 31, 2020.
The 12 MPS who had approached the court challenging Khupe’s recall are, Bacilia Majaya, Mucharairwa Mugidho, Annah Nyambo and Nomathemba Ndhlovu and Senators Gideon Shoko, Helen Zivira, Tapfumanei Wunganai, Meliwe Phuti, Phylis Ndlovu, Herbert Sinamapande, Keresencia Chabuka and Siphiwa Ncube.
More: Newsday
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