Times Live
17 March 2015
Zimbabwe’s speaker of parliament on Tuesday agreed to a request from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to expel 21 legislators who have broken away from the Morgan Tsvangirai-led party, an official said.
The 17 MPs and four senators are all part of the MDC-Renewal Team, which is led by the MDC’s former secretary general Tendai Biti. Biti, a lawyer, is extremely critical of Tsvangirai, accusing him of corruption and dictatorial tendencies.
The seats have been declared vacant and by-elections will be held.
Confirming the speaker’s decision, Jacob Mafume, spokesman for Biti’s breakaway faction, said: “There is only one winner in this and it is the Zanu-PF faction fronted by Emmerson Mnangagwa, which desperately wants more parliamentarians to counter the ones that [former vice president Joice] Mujuru has.”
Mafume told Sapa: “Morgan Tsvangirai has again worked with Zanu-PF, thinking that it’ll benefit him.”
President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF is divided between supporters of new vice president Mnangagwa and the former incumbent Mujuru, who was sacked in December. These by-elections give Mnangagwa’s faction — which is on the up — a chance to fill up seats with their preferred candidates, especially if, as is being anticipated, Tsvangirai’s party boycotts the vote.
The opposition is not fielding candidates in two by-elections this month, saying reforms are needed.
Zimbabwean journalist @nqabamatshazi tweeted: “Will MDC-T boycott these by-elections that they have caused? May someone explain the logic of this to me. I am lost.”
The MDC won a total of 70 seats in the upper and lower houses of parliament in the 2013 elections.
Senator David Coltart, who served as education minister in the 2009 to 2013 coalition government, tweeted: “There is no doubt in my mind that many of the 21 MPs expelled were some of the brightest and parliament will be all the poorer without them.”
But supporters of Tsvangirai were happy.
“That’s gr8 news but we should field candidates for those seats and stop this by-election boycott,” Michael Moyo wrote on an MDC Facebook page.
Harare analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya, of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, told Sapa that he did not believe Tsvangirai’s faction would boycott by-elections.
“I don’t think they were attempting to simply donate these seats to Zanu-PF,” he said, adding: “Without doubt, Zanu-PF will get some of the seats.”
Zanu-PF’s Saviour Kasukuwere, the environment minister, tweeted: “UMDC…21 seats…am waiting for these seats.”
MDC-Renewal recently merged with another breakaway opposition faction to form the UMDC (United Movement for Democratic Change).