Speaker of parliament, Jacob Mudenda, yesterday announced the expulsion of the MPs from the MDC Renewal Team on the basis that they had joined a new movement, UMDC.
“The MDC applauds the decision by the Speaker of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate to uphold the provisions of Section 129 (1) (k) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and allow the recalling of 21 Members of Parliament who deserted the party that sponsored them to get elected into the august House.
“The 21 former MPs deserted the MDC and joined a rival political party that now calls itself the UMDC. Their rebellious move meant that they were no longer representatives of the MDC party that got them elected into Parliament,” said the MDC-T national spokesperson, Obert Gutu, in a statement today.
He added: “The decision to recall the rebel 21 MPs is also in keeping with one of the key resolutions of the MDC 4th national congress that was held at the City Sports Centre in Harare from October 31, 2014 to November 2, 2014. Congress unanimously resolved that these renegade MPs be recalled from Parliament since they were no longer representing the interests of the party and the people who voted them into office.”
The MPs, among them Biti, broke ranks with MDC-T last year, accusing Tsvangirai of leadership failure that they blamed for the heavy loss at the 2013 general elections.
They formed the Renewal Team which immediately claimed they had “fired” Tsvangirai and his loyalists from MDC.
“It is beyond reasonable disputation that the renegade MPs’ continued stay in Parliament purporting to be representing the MDC was not only hypocritical but wholly self – serving and completely disrespectful and highly contemptuous of the thousands of MDC supporters who voted them into Parliament on July 31,2013.
“It is beyond debate that the 21 renegade MPs were voted into Parliament on an MDC ticket but they later joined another political party without the mandate of the people who put them into office. The 21 rebels selfishly betrayed the people who voted them into office.
These political renegades should have had the common decency to consult the people who elected them into Parliament before making the decision to cross over to form another political party,” said Gutu.
He said the expulsion of the 21 presented an opportunity for them to contest in by-elections as representatives of a separate party or as independents.
Biti has vowed to take their expulsion to the Constitutional Court by Friday this week.
Post published in: News