MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has vowed to fight back
following the latest setback for his party where the High Court rejected an
application to block Thokozani Khupe’s faction from recalling its legislators.
High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi on Friday ruled
that the MDC Alliance does not exist as a legal person, who can sue in court as
he blocked the Chamisa-led party from using the courts to stop Khupe.
Chamisa yesterday told The Standard that President Emmerson
Mnangagwa was behind his party’s woes because he was still bitter about the
outcome of the 2018 elections.
“He is being vindictive because we defeated him in 2018,”
he said. “He cannot stomach that. We control 28 out of 32 urban councils and he
lost in 2018. He cannot decimate us.
“He wants to capture us and give the party to his people.
It will not happen. He must leave the MDC alone.”
Chamisa had earlier tweeted a similar message, vowing to
fight back.
“Will fight and win Zimbabwe for change,” he tweeted.
“[Mnangagwa] will never forgive us for defeating him in 2018.
“All challenges are platforms for major comebacks, renewal
and massive resurgence.
“We are on the right side of history. We stand for right,
light and truth.”
Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba said the MDC
Alliance could not blame anyone for its problems because it was the one that
made the decision to approach the courts.
“I suppose the same president would have advised them to
approach the courts, isn’t it?
“When you present your matter in court, you must
necessarily respect the outcome, happy or unhappy as the case may be, and that
can’t be the responsibility of a non-party to procedures,” Charamba said.
“The president is not a party to the case, so how do you
suddenly import a person who is not party to the process, who has not declared
an intention to be a litigant?
“How do you suddenly import him to explain your poor
showing in the court?”
Charamba said the fact that two judges had different
opinions on the status of the MDC Alliance as a political party showed that the
judiciary was independent.
Prior to Chitapi’s judgement, High Court judge Justice
Munangati Manongwa had observed that MDC Alliance “is a political party with
capacity to sue and be sued.”
Munongwa made the observation while granting the MDC
Alliance a provisional order to stop the disbursement of $7,5 million under the
Political Parties Finance Act to the Khupe-led MDC-T.
“That individual judges will interpret the same law to
different conclusions just speaks very well of the bench,” Charamba said.
“Judges are not choristers, they don’t belong to a choral
team, they are individuals who weigh facts before them in light of the law and arrive
at conclusions, which may coincide or may be at variance.”
Charamba said there was no need to drag Mnangagwa into a
fight he was not part of, saying it “will not increase their fortunes neither
will it make them any wiser.”
“In future, if they want to blame the president, they can
come and brief him before they go to court,” he said.
MDC Alliance accused MDC-T secretary-general Douglas
Mwonzora and his colleagues of working with Zanu PF to destroy the opposition
after he sided with Khupe following a Supreme Court judgement early this year
that said she was the late Morgan Tsvangirai’s legitimate successor. Standard
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