VULTURES are circling over MDC-T acting president Thokozani
Khupe with insiders saying there is a plot to oust her by end of this month
after she failed to convene an extraordinary congress (EOC) within the three
months as ordered by the Supreme Court in March.
Highly-placed sources said there was a plot by party
bigwigs to hand over the party leadership to interim chairperson Morgen Komichi
in July in the event that Khupe fails to convene the congress.
The development came after the MDC-T was at the weekend
forced to revise the congress date from September 4 to July 31.
A camp supporting secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora said
Khupe had attempted to breach the Supreme Court ruling that gave her control of
the opposition party.
Lawyers, who are part of the MDC-T, said failure by Khupe
to hold an EOC by June 30 meant she now loses her powers to legally convene
constitutional meetings, leaving Komichi in charge.
Komichi has 30 days to convene the meeting to elect the
late Morgan Tsvangirai's successor.
"On Tuesday (today), the date is June 30. It will be
90 days after the Supreme Court ordered Khupe to convene an MDC-T EOC and she
has failed to do so.
"Attempts to hide behind the Supreme Court practice
direction will not hold. It is not applicable as it only affects time count to
the court. This means court processes of matters still pending before the court
and not those already decided," a lawyer said.
He said Khupe can't claim practice directive when she has
been benefiting from the effects of the Supreme Court ruling from the day it
was issued.
"You can't have
a selective effect of the judgment because Khupe has been acting president of
the MDC-T for the past three months owing to that ruling and she wants to
conveniently say the practice directive suspends the implementation of the
judgment only as far as holding congress is concerned yet she is implementing
all other parts of the judgment," he said.
Law lecturer, Valentine Mutatu said Khupe's team was wrong
in the reading of the practice directive, adding that if she failed to hold the
EOC by June 30, she would lose control of the elective processes to Komichi.
"The practice direction was specific on the issues it
covered. At law, there is a practice we use, that is, the exclusive mention of
issues is the exclusive exception of other issues.
"In this case, the practice directive by the Chief
Justice exclusively mentioned the judgments that were suspended, which were in
line with government policy on rentals and sales and not the judgment as issued
by the Supreme Court," he said.
Mwonzora, during a standing committee meeting two weeks ago
warned that failure to convene an EOC within three months would expose the
party to lawsuits which could be disastrous.
"The Supreme Court sets clear deadlines for this
event," Mwonzora said.
"We have developed the roadmap to the congress. The
correct interpretation of the Supreme Court judgment means that the congress
must be held by July 31. Any extensions outside the timelines given by the
Supreme Court can expose us to unnecessary legal challenges," Mwonzora
told the meeting.
MDC-T deputy spokesperson Khalipani Phugeni, however,
insisted that Khupe remained in charge and was within the correct
interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling because of the practice directive
issued by Chief Justice Malaba.
Social media platforms have started campaigning for
Mwonzora to take over from Khupe, while former vicepresident Elias Mudzuri is
also campaigning for the top post. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment