MDC senior officials, Morgen Komichi, Elias Mudzuri and Douglas Mwonzora have been ordered to resign from their senatorial positions for openly associating themselves with a recent court order that invalidated Nelson Chamisa’s tenure as leader of the main opposition.
The three were elected senators in the 2018 elections on an MDC Alliance ticket with Chamisa as the party’s presidential candidate.
However, last week, the Supreme Court ruled that Chamisa’s ascendance to the helm of MDC (then MDC-T) in February 2018 following the death of party founding president, Morgan Tsvangirai, was illegitimate.
The court ordered the party to revert back to its 2014 structures and hold an extraordinary congress within 90 days to choose Tsvangirai’s replacement.
At the time, Thokozani Khupe was the only vice president who emerged directly from the 2014 congress while Chamisa and Mudzuri were appointed co-VPs by Tsvangirai 2014.
Mwonzora and Komichi have since come out in full support of the court judgment and are claiming to have reverted to their 2014 MDC-T congress positions of secretary general and national chairperson, respectively.
However, this has not gone down well with their colleagues in the MDC Alliance with Vice President Welshman Ncube calling for the trio’s immediate resignation as senators. Komichi is a senator in Midlands province, Mudzuri in Harare and Mwonzora in Manicaland.
Ncube feels the three should, in their good conscience, resign as MDC Alliance senators.
“If Mwonzora is the constitutionalist he says he is and fully embraces the Supreme Court judgment declaring invalid and void all appointments and decisions made by Chamisa then let us see him resign his Senate seat for he was appointed onto the Manicaland PR (provisional representative) Senate list by Chamisa,” Ncube said.
“The same applies to Komichi, who comes from Masvingo, but pleaded with Chamisa to appoint him and place him as No.2 on the Midlands Senate list ahead of (Francisco) Masendeke who was then chairman of Midlands South. He too must, in good conscience resign his Senate seat for the same reason.
“Then VP Mudzuri who had been beaten in a primary election in Harare, had to be appointed by Chamisa onto the Harare Senate PR list ahead of (James) Makore who was sitting Senator, he too cannot have his cake and eat it too,” Ncube said.
However, in response, Mwonzora said he would not resign as he was qualified to be a Senator not because of the benevolence of anyone.
“I applied and was approved as a Senate candidate by the elections directorate of the main MDC. My candidature was approved by the National Council. I am a Senator because I objectively qualified and not because of the benevolence of anyone,” said Mwonzora. – Newzim
