Dejected Biti cries foul over expulsions

By Fungi Kwaramba

HARARE – A devastated Tendai Biti on Wednesday described the expulsion of 21 legislators from his MDC renewal team as tragic, vowed to contest the legislation which empowers political parties to recall Members of Parliament.

At a press conference that was largely attended by distraught expelled legislators, Biti sensationally claimed that officials from the mainstream MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai surreptitiously held meetings with Zanu PF officials prior to the decision.

“That decision is a heavy blow to democracy and the democratic agenda in Zimbabwe, that decision will allow the virtual handover and transfer to Zanu PF of seats that democracy players were occupying in both chambers,” said an unusually subdued Biti.

Gone was the bluster, as the former Finance minister claimed victimisation of his “vibrant” faction.

Speaker Jacob Mudenda and Senate President Edna Madzongwe made the announcement on Wednesday following a recent letter to the august House by MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora recalling the legislators — 17 of them from the National Assembly and four from the Senate — after they allegedly aligned themselves with the UMDC.

Mudenda had played the matter to touch last year, referring the MDC to Zimbabwe’s courts when the main opposition party attempted to recall the lawmakers.

He argued then that the matter was sub judice since a matter regarding the leadership legitimacy in the party was before the courts.

But Mudenda informed the House on Wednesday that he now accepted that lawmakers no longer represented the MDC’s interests in Parliament.

Biti, a constitutional law expert, said the move to expel the 21 lawmakers from Zimbabwe’s Parliament is unprecedented in the Westminster history of the legislature.

Westminster is the name given to the system of parliamentary democracy used in countries such as Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Under the system Parliaments are elected by the people.

“Democracy is a very simple process, people elect their representatives and the people themselves have the ultimate say on who can go to Parliament, not a political party, not even the Speaker of Parliament, it does not happen and it is not provided in the Constitution of Zimbabwe,” Biti said.

The Tsvangirai led-MDC successfully recalled the 21 MPs on the grounds that they had ceased to be members of the opposition party after forming their renewal team outfit.

Biti said he and his ousted MPs never left the MDC or formed another party, saying two centres of power existed within the opposition movement.

The former legislator said it is incredulous that aspirations of the electorate who voted for them in the 2013 elections can be quashed by a simple ruling from the Speaker of House of Assembly Jacob Mudenda.

“To think that you can defeat the aims and desires of the concerned persons either as a political party or as the speaker of Parliament I think it is undemocratic, this is not supported by our Constitution and I think it is a reflection of our predatory politics,” he said.

With the MDC adamant that it would not participate in any by-elections before reforms, Biti said his erstwhile comrades in opposition politics have handed “some no-go areas” like Bulawayo to Zanu PF on a silver platter.

“The position taken by our erstwhile comrades is a reflection of naivety and amateurism, it is a reflection of total surrender to powerful forces of despotism, and those spaces are going to be very difficult to recover,” Biti said. Daily News