BULAWAYO Three Members of Parliament (MPs) expelled from Zimbabwean Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambaras MDC formation for indiscipline last Tuesday challenged their expulsion in the High Court in Bulawayo. (Pictured: Arthur Mutambara Is battling to contain a rebellion by a group of MPs from his party.)The matter is yet to be set down for hearing. The three Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South); Njabuliso Mguni (Lupane East) and Norman Mpofu (Bulilima East) as well as Alex Goosen, an ostrich farmer from Matabeleland North who is a member of the partys national executive council, were expelled from the party more than two weeks ago.
Their expulsion from means that they cannot continue to execute their duties as MPs in their constituencies or attend parliamentary sessions, effectively reducing the number of the MDC-M lawmakers to seven MPs.
They were accused of addressing meetings in their constituencies attacking the party leadership and allegedly urging party members to join the rival MDC-T formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
A disciplinary hearing was conducted on July 4 but they stormed out of the proceedings, accusing the hearing officers of failing to lay specific charges against them.
In their application filed last Tuesday by their lawyer Thamsanqa Khumalo, they argued that the decision to expel them was irregular and unfair and was reached as a result of bias by party national disciplinary committee chairman Lyson Mlambo, who is cited as the first respondent in the matter. The MDC-M is the second respondent.
Proceeding with the hearing without the involvement of the applicants by respondents deprived applicants their right to be heard and is thus a breach of fundamental principle of administrative law, they argued.
They also applied for an order setting aside the proceedings of the disciplinary hearing and requesting the reconvening of the disciplinary hearing.
The application came on the heels of another application for review of the hearing proceedings they filed on July 14 to which Mlambo and MDC-M filed their opposing papers last Friday.
Relations between Bhebhe and members of his executive have been strained over the past year, as the Nkayi lawmaker openly clashed with members of the executive council.
Earlier this year, Bhebhe was nominated by Prime Minister Tsvangirai for a ministerial post but his name was withdrawn at the last minute after complaints by Mutambara.
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