The Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda says he has received notice from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) recalling MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti and several other opposition lawmakers.
Mudenda on Wednesday officially announced a notice from the PDP secretary-general Benjamin Rukanda that Hon Biti Tendai (Harare East), Hon William Madzimure (Kambuzuma), Hon Settlement Chikwinya (Mbizo), Hon Mahlangu Sichelesile (Pumula), Hon Regai Tsunga (Mutasa South Constituency), and Hon Phulu Kucaca (Nkulumane) cease to be their members, hence they cannot be parliamentarians for the party.
This comes after High Court judge, Justice Sylvia Chirawu-Mugomba, ruled on Thursday that the PDP faction led by Lucia Matibenga had the power to recall the party’s MPs and councillors who have joined the post-election MDC Alliance.
Chirawu-Mugomba, in an extempore judgment, ruled that once a person supported another party, this automatically translated to “self-expulsion” from the party.
Harare mayor, Jacob Mafume, who was in the PDP faction that included Biti among other legislators and councillors, told the Daily News on Monday that they had since appealed against the High Court ruling at the Supreme Court.
When the MDC Alliance was formed under the leadership of the 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 (PRC) ahead of the 2018 general elections.
The MDC Alliance party now led by Chamisa is different from the MDC Alliance coalition which was made up of seven political parties, among them the PDP and the MDC-T led by Tsvangirai, and later by Chamisa.
The coalition was created to contest the 2018 general elections and each party seconded candidates to the alliance.
