THE Supreme Court yesterday ruled that Mr Nelson Chamisa is
not the legitimate MDC leader in terms of the party’s constitution and
subsequently ordered the convening of an extra-ordinary congress within three
months to elect a new president.
The decision by the superior court settles the acrimonious
MDC leadership wrangle pitting Mr Chamisa and Dr Thokozani Khupe.
The ruling by Supreme Court judge Justice Bharat Patel,
sitting with Justices Paddington Garwe and Antonia Guvava, followed an appeal
by MDC Alliance leaders Messrs Chamisa and Morgan Komichi challenging last
year’s ruling by Harare High Court judge Justice Edith Mushore declaring that
Mr Chamisa illegitimately acted as the party leader.
Justice Mushore also nullified the appointments of Mr
Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as deputy presidents of the MDC, saying they were
unconstitutional.
In papers before the court, Dr Khupe, Messrs Elias
Mashavira, Mudzuri and Douglas Mwonzora were cited as respondents. The
dismissal of the appeal automatically reinstates Dr Khupe as the legitimate
leader of the MDC, forcing the party to go back and start from February 15,
2018.
Justice Patel ruled that Mr Chamisa’s ascension to the helm
of the party was fundamentally flawed by gross constitutional irregularities.
He directed Dr Khupe, in her capacity as the party’s acting
president, to convene an extra-ordinary congress within three months from the
date of the order to elect a new president.
The judge said in the event that Dr Khupe fails to comply
with the order, Mr Komichi, in his capacity as the party’s national
chairperson, should convene the congress within four months.
“It is accordingly ordered that the judgment of the court a
quo be and is hereby confirmed, save for the deletion of paragraphs 4 and 5 of
the operative order. The third respondent (Dr Khupe), in her capacity as the
acting president of the first appellant (MDC), be and is hereby ordered to
convene an Extra-Ordinary Congress,
within a period of three months from the date of this order, in order to elect
a new president,” ruled Justice Patel.
He said Mr Chamisa’s rise to the helm of the party was also
in violation of the party’s core values.
“As I have noted earlier, Article 3 of the party
constitution enshrines its status as a Social Democratic Party whose core
values shall be solidarity, justice, equality, liberty, freedom, transparency,
humble and obedient leadership and accountability. These core values of the
party, if they are not to be reduced to merely hollow rhetoric, necessarily
implicate the principles of good governance and adherence to the leadership
requirements embodied in the constitution,” he said.
“The analysis of the relevant provisions of the
constitution that I have articulated in addressing the grounds of appeal makes
it abundantly clear that the second appellant’s ascent to the helm of the party
was fundamentally flawed by gross constitutional irregularities. To perpetuate
that situation without appropriate correction would not only undermine the
ethos and dictates of the constitution but would also infringe the rights of
all the party’s members to a constitutionally elected leadership.”
Justice Patel said Mr Chamisa’s conduct violates the
principles of good governance and rule of law as enunciated in section of 3(1)
of the country’s constitution.
“It is further necessary to ensure that the leadership of
the party is constitutionally and lawfully ensconced. The imbroglio that the
party’s leadership has become entangled in may well be water under the bridge,
but it is a bridge that, for the sake of the party’s stature and credibility,
needs to be correctly and systematically constructed. In short, notwithstanding
the political mootness of this matter, it is imperative that there should be an
authoritative determination of this appeal in the interests of justice,” he
said,
During the Supreme Court hearing, Dr Khupe, through her
lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku urged the bench to recognise MDC structures
that existed in 2014 when the opposition party was being led by its founding
president, the late Morgan Tsvangirai.
In her submission, Dr Khupe argued that Justice Mushore did
not misdirect herself when she ruled that the MDC constitution does not provide
for the appointment of more than one deputy president. Tsvangirai appointed
Messrs Chamisa and Mudzuri as second and third vice-presidents respectively in
2016.
Dr Khupe argued that the appointment of Mr Chamisa as
acting president during a meeting held in February 2018 while Tsvangirai was
receiving treatment in South Africa was a violation of the party’s constitution
since she was available.
In his submission, Mr Chamisa through his lawyer Advocate
Thabani Mpofu, insisted that the MDC constitution provided for the appointment
of more than one vice president and that Justice Mushore’s decision was
misdirected.
He argued that Dr Khupe had moved on by leading her own
party which held its congress, and above all participated in the July 2018
elections as MDC-T candidate.
Adv Mpofu defended Tsvangirai’s appointment of Mr Chamisa,
arguing that he had powers to do so by virtue of being the leader of the
national council, “a congress outside congress.”
Adv Mpofu said Dr Khupe also violated the party
constitution by not inviting MDC’s Gokwe Sesame District secretary Mr Mashavira
to her congress since he was the one who raised the issue of not having been
invited to the national congress that ushered Mr Chamisa to the office of
acting president
Mr Mashavira’s lawyer Mr Ashell Mutungura also submitted
that the High Court did not err when it made a decision that Mr Chamisa was
unconstitutionally appointed. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment