…As Gutu, Makore join Zanu PF
TINASHE MAKICHI
Opposition political party PDP yesterday recalled MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti and five other lawmakers following a High Court judgement last week which gave the outfit the greenlight to expel MPs.
This comes after PDP secretary general Benjamin Rukanda on Wednesday this week wrote to Parliament recalling Biti together with Kambuzuma MP William Madzimure, Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya, Nkulumane MP Nhlahla Pulu, Pumula MP Sichelesile Mahlangu and Mutasa South MP Regai Tsunga.
Speaker of the House of Assembly Jacob Mudenda yesterday read a letter by Rukanda noting the six MPs ceased to be the party’s members and they cannot continue as lawmakers.
High Court judge, Justice Sylvia Chirawu-Mugomba, ruled on Thursday last week that the PDP faction led by Lucia Matibenga had the power to recall the party’s MPs and councillors who have joined the postelection MDC Alliance.
Justice Chirawu-Mugomba, in an extempore judgment, ruled that once a person supported another party, this automatically translated to “self expulsion” from the party.
When the MDC Alliance was formed under the leadership of the now late former MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai, Biti and Matibenga went separate ways.
Biti and others joined the coalition under Tsvangirai, who was succeeded by Nelson Chamisa when he died a few months before the elections. Matibenga and her faction joined hands with the Joice Mujuru-led People’s Rainbow Coalition ahead of the 2018 general elections.
In a tweet on the party’s Twitter page, MDC Alliance said the recalls were part of Zanu PF’s attempts to create a one-party state which must be “resisted by all citizens”.
“This rogue regime is employing all tactics including repressive ‘patriotism’ laws, dismembering Parliament & arbitrary arrests to crush dissent.
It’s time for the citizens to converge for change,” MDC Alliance said in a statement.
Meanwhile, former MDC members Obert Gutu and James Makore have joined Zanu PF as more defections are expected from the MDC factions.
Zanu PF on its twitter page confirmed this development yesterday.
“Cde ED Mnangagwa accompanied by Cde CGDN Chiwenga is receiving two former members of the MDC, Obert Gutu and James Makore who have decided to rejoin Zanu PF,” Zanu PF said.
Senior MDC-Alliance officials and former legislators, Lillian Timveos and Blessing Chebundo also defected to the ruling Zanu PF party citing lack of direction and violent tendencies by Nelson Chamisa’s political outfit.
Another former MDC Alliance official Tracy Mutinhiri recently applied to rejoin Zanu PF.
Mutinhiri made her intentions known to the ruling party by writing a letter to Mashonaland East provincial offices in Marondera and the party’s provincial administration secretary Kudzai Majuru notified party supporters during a Provincial Coordinating Committee.
