The Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Mudenda, today ruled that 21 MPs who broke away from Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T to form the Renewal Team last year announced recently that they had merged with another MDC outfit led by Welshman Ncube to form the UMDC.
Ncube led a splinter group from the united MDC in 2005 following disagreements over the re-introduction of the senate.
Tendai Biti, the Renewal Team secretary general who was also expelled from parliament by Mudenda described the decision by the speaker as a political strategy to weaken the opposition.
“Tsvangirai and his cohorts have played into Zanu (PF)’s hands. They have entered into an incestuous relationship to attack us at the Renewal team but little do they seem to know that they are in fact handing Zanu (PF) a victory,” said Biti.
“This is a political strategy and we are not surprised. Be that as it may we are going to file an urgent application at the constitutional court before Friday because declaring our seats vacant is a legal nullity. We are not dampened in our struggle for democracy and the fight against the Zanu (PF) tyranny,” said Biti, a practising lawyer.
The Renewal Team, Biti said, is going to base its ConCourt application on the fact that Mudenda has previously urged Tsvangirai’s and Biti’s formations to approach the courts to decide who the rightful leaders of the MDC are.
“This is the same Mudenda, a Zanu (PF) politburo member by the way, who last year said we should go to court to decide who the legitimate leaders of the MDC are.
“It is on record that we fired Tsvangirai and the other ones who are purporting to lead the MDC long back. Why then must Mudenda turn around and institute a kangaroo court in parliament to decide on the legitimacy of the party leadership?” added Biti.
Last year, the Renewal Team convened at the Mandel training centre in Harare where they “fired” Tsvangirai and his top lieutenants.
The Tsvangirai faction, on the other hand, also declared Biti and other senior members of the party expelled.
“People worked hard to get those 21 seats. Tsvangirai cannot just donate them to Zanu (PF) and hope that he will get them back in 2018 (at the next general elections).
“What he has done is to dilute the opposition’s strength in parliament and it’s not clear what he is trying to achieve by that. That’s why we have always said he is working with Robert Mugabe,” added Biti.
Post published in: News