Recalled MDC-A MPs lose reinstatement bid, judge says case ‘fatally ill-conceived’

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HARARE – Four recalled MDC Alliance lawmakers have lost a High Court challenge against their removal from the legislature after a judge ruled that their case was “fatally ill-conceived and must fail.”

Former MPs Charlton Hwende, Prosper Mutseyami, Thabitha Khumalo, and Senator Lilian Timveos, now a Zanu PF member, had sought a declarator setting aside their recall by the MDC-T.

But Justice Pisirayi Kwenda threw out their petition saying “this application focuses on what happened in Parliament. A declaratory order by [sic] which a dispute over the existence of some legal right or obligation is resolved.”

“Any litigant who approaches this court for a declaratory order must locate his or her cause of action within the four corners of that definition,” said the judge.

“Actually, there is an inconsistency between the description and paragraph 2 of the draft order. The order does not seek a declaratory order by an order setting aside MDC-T’s declaration.

“The application was, therefore, fatally ill-conceived and must fail. Costs must follow the result, I am not inclined to award costs on a legal practitioner client scale because this is a case of national importance. In the result, the applications [filed separately] be and are hereby dismissed with costs,” Justice Kwenda ruled.

The four had argued that the Speaker of Parliament and the President of the Senate erred in removing them as lawmakers on the basis of a letter written by Douglas Mwonzora, signing off as secretary-general of his Zanu PF-leaning MDC-T.

Mwonzora has recalled dozens of MDC Alliance MPs and councilors following a March 30, 2020, Supreme Court judgment that said Nelson Chamisa had illegally succeeded founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai after his death in February 2018.

The court declared Thokozani Khupe – who contested the 2018 polls as MDC-T leader – the rightful heir, prompting a sustained recall spree targeting MDC Alliance legislators who stuck with Chamisa.

The purge continued even after Khuphe was toppled by Mwonzora.

The four lawmakers had maintained in their application that they ran and won the July 2018 elections on an MDC Alliance ticket and could not, therefore, be said to be members of the MDC-T, whose members they beat in the polls.